


Protecting The One You Love

by PrinceOfClowns



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 20:37:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceOfClowns/pseuds/PrinceOfClowns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Humanstuck - Karkat Vantas lives in a small town with his alcoholic mother and abusive father. His home life is nothing short of hell and at school he an outcast, shying away from the other students. Sollux Captor lives with his mother in another town. Until, that is, his mothers job forces them to move a few towns over. Which just happens to be where Karkat lives. Triggers - Abuse, language, perhaps smut?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Day In The Life Of Karkat

**Author's Note:**

> Please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes! ^.^

Chapter One => Be karkat

You wake to the sound of glass being broken. Not unusual. You sigh and slowly open your eyes, letting them adjust to the bright sun light streaming through your window. You groan and turn to look at your alarm clock. 6:45. You have to be at school in a hour. Most kids hate school, you are not the exception, you hate it too. But you hate it significantly less than you hate being home. School is like an oasis to you. A mini vacation. Ok, that was going a little too far. You still hated to work and all the people but it was better than getting beat. You sat up in your bed and the cold instantly hit you. It was the beginning of February and it was freezing outside, but of course you had to have the window open. You rub your eyes and throw your blankets off, escaping the warmness of your bed, and shut the window, blocking more of the cold air from coming in. 'Why the fuck does it have to be so cold in winter?' You think.

You hear another glass break and sobbing. You know your dad is throwing another bitch fit and your mom is crying on the couch. Any normal teenage boy would go down stairs and help his mother but not you. What has she ever done for you? Sit there and watch your dad beat you senseless? You can’t exactly fight back. You're a scrawny short kid and your dad is a big two hundred pound guy. He could crush you like you were made of paper. Plus, you know dad wont hit her, at least, not as hard as he hits you.

You look down at yourself. You're wearing black and red pajama pants and no shirt. Your pale skin is dotted everywhere with bruises. Some small. Some large. You also have a large and prominent scar slashed across your stomach. You remember what caused it but the memories are to hard to face right now. Almost all of your chest and stomach is black and blue, and in some spots, purple and yellow. Your arms have bruises in the shapes of hand prints, showing where your dad would grab you to fling you across the room like a rag doll. You sigh and walk over to your closet. You take out a long sleeve, plain gray shirt and a black sweat shirt. You throw them both on , then a pair of gray jeans. You quietly open your bedroom door as to not alert your dad that you're up just yet. Maybe you can sneak out without getting hit this morning , if you're quiet enough. Luckily, your dad doesn't hear you as you creep across the upstairs hallway to the bathroom.

Once you are safely in the bathroom you stand at the sink and look at your reflection in the mirror. You scowl at yourself. You have large bags under your eyes from the lack of sleep. Your hair is a mess and goes in every which direction. You grab a brush and somewhat tame your hair. Its still not to your liking but you don't have time to worry right now. You make your way silently back to your room, closing the door behind you. You grab your phone from the nightstand next to your bed. Your dad is the owner of the Quartering Bank and brings home a lot of money. Despite him obviously hating you, he gives all the necessary things you need like clothes and food and, of course, a phone. It’s an iphone, but you don't really like it. You feel its your dads way of making sure nobody suspects what's going on in the house. Like if somebody sees you with an expensive phone they think that you're life at home must be great. This is, obviously, complete bullshit.

You check the clock again. 7:15. 30 minutes before you have to be in your first class. You take a deep breath and scrounge up the courage to go down the hallway and face your tormenter. You don't bother trying to be quite as you walk the length of the hallway though you've become pro at being silent at all times. The way your house is set up is that at the end of the hallway is all open. The kitchen, living room, and dining room are not separated by walls, it just looks like one big room. Unfortunately for you that means the moment you step out you're an open target. You step out slowly looking for your dad. He's nowhere to be seen, thankfully. Maybe he went to work early or something. You grab your backpack off the chair in the dining room and swing it over your shoulder, heading for the front door. You were almost there. You were so close to freedom. But, of course, your bad luck continues. The door to the basement where your parents bedroom is swung open and slammed shut as your dad came stomping up the stairs. He spotted you right away with your hand on the doorknob. So close. He smiled wickedly at you. "You almost got away, didn't you?" He took a few steps closer and you pressed back against the door. "But we can’t have that, now can we?" You stayed quiet and tried to shrink down. He lunged forward and yanked your bag away and threw it across the room. You gave a tiny squeak in surprise.

He scowled at you. "You're pathetic." He pulled his fist back and punched in the stomach, making you double over in pain. He grabbed your arm harshly and pulled you up so you were looking him in the eyes. His eyes were a deep shade of brown with a tint of red in them while your eyes were a deep shade of red. You hated them. They were just like your fathers when he was younger.

He stared into your eyes. "You're nothing. You will always be nothing. Nobody will ever want you." You grimaced because you knew it was true. Nobody would love trash like you. He punched one more time in the stomach, in the same spot, making you collapse to your knees in pain. He scoffed at you and walked away, back down the stairs to do whatever it is he does down there. You struggled to get to your feet. Your stomach hurt like a bitch and your arm was stinging from where he grabbed you.

Slowly you lifted up your shirt to find a nice big black bruise forming in the middle of your abdomen. "great" You sighed quietly. You winched as you walked to pick up your bag, swinging it back over your shoulder and finally making your way out of the door. You checked your phone. 7:25. 20 minutes. It took about ten or so minutes to get to the school by walking so that would give you ten minutes to get your stuff from your locker and get to English. You started your trek to the school. You lived pretty close so instead of taking the bus filled with loud and obnoxious teenagers who only add to your daily amount of suffering, you usually walk. Its peaceful. The only real peace you get all day.

You arrive at the school ten minutes later, surrounded by teenagers bumping into you. The school wasn't that big so it was easy to find your way around. The letters on the school spelled "Shady High". The letters were rusted and peeling, making the school look old and worn out. You walked into the building, keeping your head down, trying to be invisible. It worked for the most part, most people walked right past you without a second glance. That's the way you like it, when nobody even knows you exist. You walked to your locker and threw your bag in, grabbing your English book, then walking up stairs to your English class. Today was going to be a long ass day. In English class you took your seat in the back of the room. You sat in the back corner with an empty seat in front of you and an empty seat next to you. Nobody really ever cared to talk to you and you didn't blame them. You looked like the lonely emo with your black and gray cloths and how you never talk to anyone or participate in class. Your teacher droned on about some stupid project you guys would have to do next week. You tuned her out to look out the window you were sitting by. You caught bits and pieces of what she was saying. Something about partners, animals and a due date. You continued to space out until the bell rang. You jumped up and walked out of the room before anybody else.

Nothing really interesting happened the rest of the day. You made it through your morning classes, barley saying anything unless a teacher asked you to answer. You sat alone at lunch in the corner, not eating anything since eating would make you even more fat then you already are. Instead you took out your sketchbook and started to draw a little boy sitting in a corner of a room, alone. He had a surprising resemblance to you. Your afternoon classes dragged on and on. The only class you actually like is Art, the last class of the day. You walked into the Art room and took your seat, again, in the back of the class. You listened to the teacher talk about some of the paintings you guys had done earlier in the year. What really caught your attention though, was when she said that your next project would to be to draw your deepest desires. You were to start next week and it was due in three weeks. You smile subconsciously at this but you easily smother it with your usual frown. This is the one class project you're really going to enjoy.

…

When the bell signals the end of school you hurriedly put your paint away and rush down stairs to your locker, grabbing your bag and rushing out the school doors. You walk home in silence hoping and praying that your father is still at work. If he works late he's usually too tired to beat you. Most times he just comes into your room and yells about how disgusting you are and how you'll die alone. These thoughts stay with you at all times. You know he's telling the truth. Why would he say it if it wasn't? He's been telling you these things since before you can remember. You know he hates you, he makes that very clear. But you don't blame him. You hate yourself too. You see your house in the distance and thankfully the only car in the driveway is your mothers. You walk into the house and your mother is in the kitchen. When she hears the door open she turns around. She has big bags under her eyes, much like yours and she smiles warmly at you. "Hello hunny, how was your day?" She asks sweetly like she actually cares. You glare at her as you walk past to go to your room. "Fucking perfect" you mutter. You walk into your room and close the door and throw yourself on your bed. You hate Fridays for one reason. it's the end of the week and signals the start of the weekend. Your dad works weekends but he usually gets out early. Early enough to throw a few punches at you, sling some insults, them leave to go out to the bar with his friends. You sigh and cover your face with you hands. Its going to be a fun weekend for sure.


	2. A Day In The Life Of Sollux

Chapter two => Be Sollux

You groan as your mother shakes you awake. "Come on sweetie, it’s time to get up" You roll over and ignore her, trying to fall back asleep. You were just about to fall back into your amazing dreams about hacking and coding but you were suddenly trapped in coldness. You sat straight up, eyes wide.

Your mother was standing next to your bed holding your yellow and black blankets, smiling sweetly. She had bright blue, kind eyes with a small figure. She was a short women, at only 5'2" and you towered over her at 5'8". "I told you it was time to get up" She said, throwing your blankets back onto your bed. "Now, get up, I have some news for you. Get dressed and meet me down stairs." She threw a smile your way and walked out of your bedroom, closing the door.

You rubbed your face with your hands, forcing yourself to wake up. You got out of bed and strode towards your closet and picked out a plain black t-shirt, a yellow and black striped sweat shirt and plain black jeans. Some people think your style is weird but you don't really care what they think.

You slip on your black converse and grab your red and blue glasses on your nightstand, putting them on to cover your eyes. Your eyes were freakish. One was bright blue and the other was dark brown. It was weird and tended to freak people out so you wore your cool 3-D glasses to cover them.

You went into the bathroom that was connected to your room. You looked at your self in the mirror. You weren't ugly but you didn't find yourself attractive either. Your hair always stuck up no matter how much you brushed it and you hated it. You were tall and skinny, taller than almost all the kids in your Sophomore year.

You sighed and did your morning routine then grabbed your black backpack and bounded down the steps. Your mother was sitting at the dining room table with her morning cup of coffee clasped between her hands. She looked nervous, so in turn, that made you nervous. You sat down next to her and gave her a worried look. "Is everything ok, mom?" You asked, your lisp annoying you. She looked up at you And gave you a smile. "Yes, sweetie everything is fine. But i'm afraid I have some news you may not like…" She says looking back down to her coffee. You wait for her to continue. "I'm being transferred." You're confused for a split second before you connect the dots. 'So…were moving?" You ask quietly.

She looked back up to you "Yes, only a few towns over though, I'm sorry Sollux. I’ve already started packing. You should to when you get home, we leave tonight" She smiles slightly but it looks forced, she stands up and kisses your forehead, taking her coffee into the living room.

You closed your eyes and banged your head down on the table. Why did you have to move? You had such great friends here. You didn't want to move. You didn't want to go to a new school. You didn't want to go through the effort of trying to make new friends. You sighed heavily and lifted your head back up. You weren't mad at your mom, you knew she didn't have a choice if she wanted to be able to support you. Your dad was no longer in the picture. He had left your mom when he found out she was pregnant with you and you have never met him, nor do you have the desire to.

"Sollux, hurry up, you're going to miss the bus if you keep sitting there" You're mom yelled from the living room. You stood up, grabbed your bag, and kissed your moms cheek before running outside in time to see the bus roll up in front of your house. You climbed the steps and sat down next to your friend Rose. "Hello Sollux" She said, turning away from the window to look at you. She had blonde hair that closely resembled the color of your friend Daves. You think they must be related but you're not sure, and you're not about to ask. "Hey Rose' You say glumly, your lisp completely butchering her name. She stared at you for a minute. You hated when she did this, you felt like she was staring into your mind. It was creepy.

"Why are you looking at me that?" You say leaning away from her slightly. She narrowed her eyes at you. "There is something wrong. What is it?" She asks, well more like demands. You sigh and lean your head on the seat in front of you.

"I'm moving" You mumble, surprisingly she hears you over the loud chatter in the bus and her eyes widen in shock. "oh" she says quietly before regaining her previous posture. "I'm so sorry to hear that Sollux, we will all miss you dearly but i'm sure you will make plenty of new friend at your new school." You close your eyes. "I hope so" you whisper.

Nobody really knows but you hate being alone. You hate moving to new schools because it takes so long for you to make new friends and for the first few weeks you are utterly alone, and that depresses you. You like your alone time once in a while, but you hate knowing you can’t get up at any moment and go hang out with somebody.

Granted you didn't have many friends here, you still had some. And some was better than none. You spaced out some, thinking about your new school. Rose shook your shoulder. "Sollux"

You looked up and saw everybody had exited the bus. You jumped up and grabbed your backpack, walking out of the bus with Rose following closely behind. You went your separate ways, going up the step to your own locker.

You plop your bag into the bottom of your locker and grab your binder, then closed it. You walked back downstairs and got into the World History class room right before the bell rang. You took your seat next to your friend Gamzee as class started.

The teacher started to drone on and on about some war and you tuned her out. You were about to fall asleep when a note fell on to your desk. You looked over at Gamzee with a confused face. He was looking at with that smile that made him look high (which he probably was) and gestured for you to open the note.

You opened it and read it.

'HeY bRo, RoSe ToLd Me AbOuT yOu MoViNg. ThAt MoThErFuNkInG sUcKs BrO :o("

You grabbed a pen out of your binder and replied

'Yeah, ii know iit 2uck2. II don't want two move but ii don't have a choiice'

You handed the note to Gamzee. "Mr. Captor and Mr. Makara! There will be no note passing in my class!" Your teacher screeched at you from the front of the classroom. "Sorry" you mumble and Gamzee just sits there smiling like an idiot in his weird clown make up.

The rest of the day dragged on. At lunch you sat with Gamzee, Rose, Kanaya, Aradia, and John. All of them say their goodbyes and talk about how they'll miss you and John hugs you when lunch is over which makes you sort of uncomfortable. You're not to fond of physical contact.

The rest of your classes go by fairly quickly and before you know it you're getting off the bus at the end of your driveway. There is a moving truck parked by the door and some guys are moving your couch into it. You walk into the house after they move to find it almost completely empty. They must have been working all day.

"Hello sweetie, how was your day?" Your mother said, coming from around the corner in the living room. You shrug "ok, I guess". She gives you a hug and kisses your cheek. "Most things are already packed up and in the truck, just pack up the things left in your room and we will get going" You sigh and nod, slowly making your way up stairs to your room.

You spend the next hour putting all your clothes and books and computer equipment into boxes and putting them in the truck. When you were done the moving truck left to meet you at your new house. You stood outside your house looking at it. You've lived here since you were five and you weren't too thrilled to be leaving it.

"Are you ready to go Sollux?" Your mom said. She was standing next to the car, waiting for you. "yeah.." You mumbled turning away and jumping into the passenger seat. Your mom got into the drivers seat and pulled out of the driveway.

The ride there was silent. It wasn't awkward, it was comfortable. It only took about an hour to get to your new house. When you pulled in the moving truck was already there, unpacking. Your mom must have given them a key.

You jump out of the car and go inside to explore. Its not a very big house. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room. It was small but cozy. You went up stairs and into the smaller of the two bedrooms. You're bed, desk and computer were already set up, along with boxes of stuff that littered the floor.

You sighed and opened a box, pulling out black pj pants and a yellow oversized shirt and changed into them. You slipped under your bumble bee colored blankets, exhausted. You fell asleep fairly quickly, into a dream of an unknown being.

_You felt a presence.. It was like there was someone there with you, it was a happy feeling. Though, you could see nothing. Then the feeling went…dark. Evil. Like someone or something was trying to take your source of happiness away from you. You heard them screaming, but you couldn't see them, you couldn't help them. They were yelling things you couldn't make out, that you couldn't understand, their voice fading. Then it went silent. A defining silence that made your insides twist with agony. Then you heard them scream again, but this time you heard what they said, they screamed your name begging for you to help them, but you couldn't. You just couldn't help. "Sollux!"_

You jolted out of bed panting heavily. You were covered in sweat and your chest heaving in and out. Your face felt wet and you realized you had been crying. You ran your hands through your hair as you rethought the dream. It was etched into your mind. Every detail of every sound they made, every terrified scream that chilled you to the bone. And your name. They had screamed in terror out to you, but you couldn't do anything. But there were no images. It was all black, you could only remember the sound. You weren't sure there was ever any images to remember anyway. But the sound alone was enough to send a shiver through your spine.

You grabbed your phone and checked the time 3:57 am. You kicked the blanket off and layed back down, praying for sleep. But the nightmare kept replaying in your head. Making it impossible for sleep to come. So you stayed up, listening to the desperate cries of an unknown person that, for some reason, you felt the need to protect. But you knew, you couldn't.


	3. That Fateful Day

 

Chapter three

=> Be Karkat

You sat up in your bed at 6:45, as usual. You weren't able to sleep last night which wasn't uncommon. Usually you can’t sleep because you're in too much pain and this time was no exception. Your dad had gotten the weekend off so he had spent it blowing off steam by hitting and kicking you and throwing insult after insult.

You got up, winced in pain, and went across the hall to the bathroom. You striped off your shirt and looked into the full body mirror to examine the damage that had been done to see what needed to be hid.

Your pale stomach and chest area was littered with forming bruises and scrapes that needed to be cleaned before they got infected. You also noticed a large, dark bruise in the shape of a hand on your left arm, about an inch above your wrist. It was darker than the others, and stuck out against your pale skin.

Also, on your right arm was a long scrape going from your wrist to your elbow from your dad pushing you and you scraping it across the corner of the kitchen counter. You made a mental note to wear something that also covered your hands cause there were bruises and scrapes on those to from the glass your dad had broken. You had managed to get all the glass out of the cuts.

Lastly you saw you had a big, prominent bruise on your cheek and a busted lip. You wouldn't be able to hide those.

You turned away and busied yourself with cleaning your cuts out. When you were done you grabbed some gauze and wrapped your abdomen up since your cuts had started to bleed again. You brush your hair and teeth then you walked back to your room, not bothering to be quiet since you heard your dad leave for work early.

You shut the door and walked to your closet, grabbing a gray sweatshirt with the cancer symbol on it. You slipped it over your head. It was two sizes to big and hung past your fingertips like you wanted it to. You slipped on a basic pair of black skinny jeans and checked your phone. 7:30. Wow, cleaning your wounds took a lot longer than you thought it would.

You grab your backpack and shove you're red sneakers on. You walk out of your room and down the hall, ignoring your mother as she tries to greet you. You walk out of your house, thankful you don't have to go through another beating, you don't think you could've handled it.

You walk to school at your normal pace, day dreaming about what it would be like to be loved, like you do everyday. But, like always your day dream ends when you finally reach the school.

As you are about to walk into the building you spot a kid you've never seen before. He's tall and skinny with obnoxious 3-D glasses on. He looks about your age. You've never seen him before, maybe he's new. He has on black jeans that hug his legs and a black and yellow t-shirt on that has a small Gemini symbol on the sleeve. He's kind of cute…

You snap out of your trance when he looks over at you and turn away quickly and continue into the building. Who cares if there is a new kid? Doesn't matter anyways. You go to your locker taking out your English book and walk to the classroom like you do every morning.

Once you get there, however, the teacher calls you to her desk. You frown in confusion and walk over. "Karkat, you've been called to the office" You raise an eyebrow but silently turn around and walk out of the room.

Why would they be calling you? You didn't do anything wrong. Shit, you barley do anything at all! Whatever, you guess you'll find out when you get there.

=> Be Sollux

You're currently sitting In the passenger seat of your mothers black car. You were exhausted from unpacking and getting your house set up all weekend. Your mother had offered to drop you off on her way to work instead of you walking since you lived fairly close to the school. You thanked your mom once she pulled into the school parking lot and got out of the car. looking around you spotted the main entrance and started towards it.

On your way you looked up to find a pair of beautiful red eyes staring into yours. Then suddenly they were gone, you hadn't gotten a chance to see who they belonged to. They were amazing, human eyes aren't usually a color like that. That bright shade of red is something you could get los- What are you thinking? They're just eyes, get over it.

You continue up the steps and through the doors, feeling kids stare at you as you walk pass. You find the office pretty easily and walk in. You hadn't even gotten a word out of your mouth before the person behind the desk started to talk.

"Oh, you must be Sollux Captor, Yes?" She asked you. "Uh, yeah" You say, surprised by how straight forward she was. She smiled kindly at you and hands you a piece of paper. Looking down you see it's your schedule.

Sollux Captor

Locker # 159

1 -7:45 - 8:45 - English - 201

2- 8:50 - 9:50 - Algebra - 112

3- 9:55 - 10:55 - Biology - 123

Lunch 11:00 - 11:25

4- 11:30 - 12:30 - History - 125

5 - 12:35- 1:35 - Spanish - 109

6- 1: 40 - 2:45 - Art - 213

Not bad, you got to end the day with Art. You're not really good at being artistic but you found it soothing to do so anyways. "We have called a student down that has the closest matching schedule to yours so they can show you around today. You nodded "Thank you" you say smiling back at her.

Just then the door to the office opened and you turned around to meet the owner of the mysterious red eyes. He looked back at you for a second before turning to the woman. He was about to say something but she got to it first. " You will be showing our new student, Sollux, around the school for today."

The boy rolled his eyes "fine" he said quietly. So quietly you almost didn't hear him. He turn around looking at you for a split second before walking out, you trailing behind. He turned back around quickly, causing you to almost crash into him. Without looking at you he grabbed your schedule out of your hands before you could react.

"You could have asked nicely, you know" You say, your lisp, once again, annoying you. He looked up at you with a scowl on his face and rolled his eyes again. And when you say he looked up, you mean up. He was so short. Probably no shorter than your mother. He turned back to the small slip of paper and you had a chance to look him over.

He was wearing a large gray sweatshirt with a faded cancer symbol over it and faded black skinny jeans that, you had to admit, hugged him in all the right places. Your eyes traveled to his hair that was messy in the cutest way. Lastly, you look over his face. His eyes were the brightest shade of red and it contrasted against his pale skin. Then you see a nasty bruise still forming on his cheek and he's also supporting a split lip. How did you not see that before?

"Hey, fuckface, are you just going to stand there and stare at me all day or are you going to come on?" He asked in an irritated voice. That voice. It sounds…so familiar. Its kind of raspy like he yelled a lot but it wasn't very deep. You couldn't place it.

You smirk back at the short boy. "I don't know, i'm kind of liking the view." He glares at you, a light blush dusting his cheek. Cute. Though, you cant really see it over the bruise on his right cheek.

"Fuck you" he mumbles, handing you your schedule back and turning back and walking down another hallway. You chuckle and follow him, subconsciously mapping out the school. "So" You say "What is your name?" You wait for a response but you don't get one. "You're not really into the whole talking thing, are you shorty?"

He growls at you. " **Don't** call me that"

"Well, if you would tell me your name, I wouldn't have to call you that."

He grumbled something inaudible. "What was that?" You ask leaning closer, smirking. This kid was so fun to get angry. "Karkat. My name is Karkat. Happy now?" He all but spits at you.

You smirk at him. "Yes, yes I am. Thanks, kk." He stops walking and turns to you. "What did you just call me?" He asked. "I called you kk" He looked confused. "Why?" he asked. "Because you have to k's in your name" You answer simply. "Yea well I also have two a's in my name, dumbass" You chuckle at his response and you two start walking again.

"Yeah but I already gave someone the nickname aa. Also having two k's is a lot more uncommon than two a's." You inform him. "Whatever" He mumbles but doesn't object to your nick name. He stops halfway down the hallway and points to a locker. "That's your locker" He says in a monotone voice.

"Thanks" you say. As you walk by him to get to your locker you ruffle his hair. He flinches away from you so you pull your hand back and raise an eyebrow. Well that was an unusual response. He won’t meet your eyes so you just shrug it off and open your locker.

You throw your backpack in and grab a notebook and a pencil. You shut the locker and turn back to Karkat. He's now looking at you with a distant look on his face. He hadn't noticed you were looking at him until you spoke up.

"You alright kk?"

He snaps out of his trance-like state, his face momentarily surprised, then he regains his scowl. "Yes, i'm fine. Not that you actually care" He mumbled the last part but you caught since it. You raised an eyebrow but decided it wasn't your place to say anything. You just met the guy after all.

Karkat started to walk again and you followed. Walking next to him but far enough away as to make sure you don't accidentally touch him. He doesn't seem to like physical contact and you respect that. You two walked side by side up the stairs and down a few more hallways until he stopped at a door. The plate on the side of the door said "Ms. Hallow - English".

You took a deep breath and prepared yourself for twenty or so students to stare at you. You followed Karkat in and you, like you expected, were greeted with the judgmental eyes of about twenty kids. You have never really cared what people thought about you but you also never were one that liked to be the center of attention.

"Thank you Karkat, you may take your seat now" The teacher -that you now know is Ms. Hallow- said and Karkat shot you one last glance before going to sit in the seat in the back corner. You turned to the teacher, she had long blonde hair that reached just above her waist and big blue eyes. She was the type of teacher you'd expect all the guys to crush on.

"Mr. Captor, why don't you take the empty seat next to Mr. Vantas and we will get on with class." You nodded without saying a word and moved quickly to the back of the room, taking the seat next to Karkat, eager to get all the eyes off you.

You slouched down in the seat, getting comfortable as the teacher started explaining the project you and an assigned partner will do. She said that you and your partner will be assigned an animal and you will be responsible for researching about the animal and writing a three page essay about what you have learned. You will pass it in for a test grade.

You were happy that this was a project that didn't require any previous knowledge learned in this class. You weren't happy, however, that you had to work with a partner. You looked around the classroom, most of the students weren't even listening to what they were suppose to be doing. If you were paired with any of these idiots you would end up doing all the work anyway.

"ok, these are the pairs' Ms. Hallow went on to list of the pairs, most of the time you could hear two muffled groan as people were paired with others they didn't like. One in a while you would hear excited squeals as some of the girls were paired with their friends. Finally she came to the end of the list. "Karkat, you will be working with Sollux"

You weighed this in your mind, trying to think if this was a good or a bad thing. On one hand he did seem very closed off, you weren't sure if he'd be willing to cooperate with you. But on the other hand he didn't seem like the type of person that would sit back and let you do all the work. He didn't seem that much of an asshole.

You decided it was a good thing. You looked over at Karkat, he was staring intently at the desk, looking like he was going through his own internal argument. You figured you wouldn't bother him. You jumped a little when Ms. Hallow came up to you and handed you a piece of paper. You took it from her hand and watched as she went around the room giving some of them different slips.

You unfolded the paper and it read "Connecticut Condor". This must be the animal you and Karkat were to research. You folded the paper back up and turned to Karkat - who was still staring at his desk - and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped and looked over with one eyebrow raised in a confusion.

You held out the slip to him. As he reached out to take it you observed that his palms had a plethora of tiny cuts in them. Like he had crawled around in glass or something. He grabbed it and opened it, the confused look turning into a look of understanding. He folded the paper back up and put it into the front pocket of his jeans, never once looking at you.

When the bell finally rang, you noticed that Karkat was the first one out of his seat. It looked as though he was about to leave and be the first one out, but then remembered you were there and stayed. You got more like a normal person and went to stand next to Karkat. He looked at you for a split second before turning and walking out, obviously expecting you to follow.

The hallway was crowded but Karkat, being so small, was able to weave through the sea of kids without problem. You were always good at navigating through crowds even with your height, and you were able to keep up but not without a little difficulty.

In your next class, Algebra, you again sat next to Karkat. Not out of choice but because it was the only seat that was open. Not that you minded sitting next to him. The teacher introduced you and you were again the center of attention and it made your skin crawl.

The teacher - Mr. Reen - lectured you guys for the whole class which was a bummer. You had hoped you would get the chance to find out more about Karkat, he seemed interesting. More interesting than most of the student body anyways. But you couldn't exactly do that at the moment, but you were planning to shoot all kinds of questions at him in your next class if you were able.

You're next class was Biology and to say that you were excited was a complete lie. You hated biology. Karkat seemed to be excited though. He wasn't wearing his usual scowl as you walked into the class room. He sat down at one of the lab tables that was in the back of the room and you took the seat next to him since, again, it was the only one open. You were starting to see a pattern here.

Karkat didn't protest when you sat next to him, in fact he didn't even look at you. You soon found out why he was excited for this class. Mrs. Yallen announced that you and the person you were sitting next to would be dissecting a frog. You frowned. You weren't usually squeamish when it came to blood of anything but you didn't like the though of cutting something open just to see what was inside. To you, it was inhumane.

Mrs. Yallen came and passed out one packet per group to every group. She then passed out the utensils you would need and then finally, the frog. It looked so gross and you had no intentions of touching it. "Ok class, just follow the directions in the packet and answer the questions. You may begin"

Karkat picked up the packet and read off the first thing you guys had to do. "I'm so not touching that thing" You say sitting back in your seat and crossing your arms. He raised an eyebrow with an amused look on his face. "Why?"

"Because its gross. I'm not going to touch a dead frog." He rolled his eyes. "Fine, than you can tell me what I have to do and write down the answers to the questions." You nodded and grabbed your pencil and opened the packet as Karkat started to complete the first step.

You guys spent the rest of class with you telling Karkat what to do, him doing it, him telling you the answers to the questions, and you writing them down. It was a pretty good system and Karkat seemed to be ok with it.

By the end of class you guys had finished and Karkat had cleaned himself up and you helped to clean up the supplies as much as you could without touch the now cut open frog. When the bell rang you and Karkat walked down the hallway to the cafeteria, stopping at your locker to get your lunch snd at Karkats to get his sketch book.

You sat down across from him when he sat down at a small round table in the corner. You too your lunch out and started to eat it while Karkat grabbed his sketch book and started to draw. "You're not going to eat anything?" You asked. He shook his head, not looking up from his drawing. "Why not?" You asked curiously. "None of your business" He shot back, obviously not liking that you were prying.

You shrugged and continued to eat. Once you were done you looked over at Karkat. Surprisingly he was already looking at you, but once your eyes fell on him he turned back to his drawing, blushing lightly. You chose to ignore it. "So, how come you seemed so eager to dissect that frog?" You asked genuinely curious. He shrugged. "I find it interesting. More than most of the shit the school teaches."

You chuckled at him and decided now was a good time to find out more about him.

"So" You say "What's your favorite color?" He looks up at you with a confused look on his face. "Why do you want to know?" He says in an almost cautious voice. "I'm just curious" You reply back, setting your head on your hand. He sighed and put his pencil down, looking back up at you. "Gray" He says. That makes a lot of sense considering his choice in clothes today.

"Your favorite movie?" He thinks for a second before saying "Love Actually" You raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a chick-flick?" He scrunched his face up. "It is not a 'chick-flick', it is a romantic comedy" You chuckled. "I never would have guessed that you liked girl movies, kk" He growled at you "They are not girl movies!" You laugh at his anger and his face falls into a look of surprise.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked. Once you were done laughing you answered. "Because you're funny when you're mad." He stares at you for a second. "Is that an insult?" He asked. You chuckle. "No, its not an insult." He stared at you for a few more seconds probably trying to figure out if you were telling the truth. You stared back in to his red eyes. They were truly beautiful.

"Why do you wear those glasses?" You were shocked at first, you weren't expecting him to talk. "No reason" You say, turning your gaze to look around the cafeteria. Before Karkat got a chance to say anything else lunch was over.

You and Karkat walked down the hallway until he stopped in front of a door. "This is the History and that" He pointed across the way is the Spanish room" You nodded, guessing that he didn't have those classes with you. You smiled at him before walking into the history room and taking a seat in the back.

Your next to classes were pretty boring. Nothing but the teachers lecturing all class. When the bell rang after Spanish you were fully prepared to find your way to the Art room by yourself but when you walked out you were surprised to see Karkat leaning against the lockers obviously waiting for you.

When he caught sight of you he pushed himself off the wall and walked over to you. "Come on" He said walking past you and towards the stairs. You followed behind his as you two climbed the stairs and down a small hallway. You walked behind him into a pretty big classroom that was obviously the art room.

The room had tables like the ones in Biology and you sat next to Karkat . He took out his sketch book and proceeded to finish the drawing he was working on at lunch. You looked over and saw him shading in a little boy that looked about seven years old. He was sitting in the corner of a room with his knees to his chest.

"That's really good…" you said in awe. He looked over at you and you noticed a light blush dusting his cheeks turning the bruise on his cheek a slight shade of pink. "Thanks" He mumbled, going back to his drawing.

The whole class was basically a social hour. Karkat drew and you watched him intently, his pencil moving gracefully over the page. He would look over at you every so often and you would look up at him and he would blush and look back down at his drawing. It was seriously the cutest thing you had ever seen.

When the class was over you and Karkat were about to go your separate ways to gather your stuff and go home. "See you tomorrow, kk" You smiled at him and turned to walk away when you felt a hand grab your wrist. You turned around and raised an eyebrow at Karkat who still had a hold of your wrist.

"Wait" He said pulling a pen out of his pocket and writing something an your hand. By the time he was done he was blushing brightly. He dropped your hand and said "So we can figure out when to meet for our English project" He then turned on his heels and walked down the hallway.

You watched him walk away until he turned a corner and you couldn't see him anymore. Once he was out of your view you looked down at your had. It had a number scrawled across it that you guessed was he number to his cell phone.

You smiled and put your hand down walking downstairs to your locker, surprisingly not getting lost. You grabbed your bag, shoving your notebook into it and then swinging it over your shoulder. You walked out side of the school building where your mom had dropped off your car. It had been at a garage being fixed when you moved so your mom had obviously went and got it for you.

You walked over, pleased to see the keys already in the car. You got in and started it, driving out of the parking lot, careful of the kids walking around.

About fifteen minutes later you pull up into your drive way. Your mothers' car isn't there so she must be at work still. You lock the car and unlock your front door. Once inside you throw your bag onto the kitchen table and go upstairs to your room.

You flop down on your bed and take out your phone, checking to see if you have any messages. Just one from your mom.

'Sorry honey, I have to work late tonight. There is leftovers in the fridge if you are hungry. Love you :)'

You sigh and throw your phone to the other side of your bed. Then you remember something. You look down at your hand and see the number in Karkats messy hand writing. You smile and sit up to grab your phone. You enter the number and set the contact as 'KK :)'. You quickly send him a text.

_**'hey kk, iit's 2ollux'** _

You get a response almost immediately.

_**'HEY, WHY DO YOU TYPE LIKE THAT?'** _

_**'becau2e my phone ii2 broken and mii22iing a key 2o II have two u2e the 2 key and I just have a habit of typiing with two ii's. Why do you type iin cap2?'** _

_**'WELL ITS FUCKING ANNOYING AND BECAUSE I CAN THAT'S WHY.'** _

_**'your2 ii2nt any better, make2 iit 2eem liike you're yelliing'** _

_**'MAYBE THAT'S THE POINT, ASSHOLE'** _

_**'well ii may be an a22hole but at lea2t ii don't watch chiick -fliick2 ;)'** _

_**'THEY ARE NOT CHICK-FLICKS!'** _

_**'oh, my mii2take, they're "romantiic comedy2"'** _

_**'EXACTLY AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH WATCHING THEM"** _

_**'yeah, iif you're a girl'** _

_**'YOU'RE STARTING TO PISS ME OFF, CAPTOR'** _

_**'oh, we are u2iing la2t name2 now? Well fine, ii liike pii22iing you off, vanta2'** _

_**'WHY WOULD YOU LIKE TO PISS ME OFF?'** _

_**'becau2e iit2 fun, al2o you're cute when you're angry'** _

_**'I AM NOT CUTE WHEN IM ANGRY!'** _

_**'yeah you are. not that ii can 2ee you riight now but iif ii could ii bet you'd look cute.'** _

_**'OK, WHATEVER YOU SAY, LOOK I REALLY HAVE TO GO. SORRY.'** _

_**'waiit, when do you want two meet up two do the project?"** _

_**'UH, TOMORROW YOUR HOUSE?'** _

_**'yeah, that work2. 2ee you tomorrow kk :)'** _

You never got an answer back. He seemed in a hurry, maybe he had to go do something or whatever. You decided not to think to much about it and got off your bed to go heat up whatever leftovers you could find.


	4. Maybe There's Hope...Or Not.

Chapter Four

=> Be Karkat

You groan as the sun shines through your window, signaling that yet another day has begun. But, you have a feeling the day won’t be so bad. As you lay awake in bed, not entirely ready to get up yet, your mind travels back to yesterday. You remember the new kid. Sollux Captor. Just thinking about him made you smile, as cliché as that sounds.

When you had gotten to the office yesterday and were assigned to show some new kid around, you weren't expecting him to stick around you all day or even try to make conversation with you. But he did. Even when you got angry at him and made it clear you didn't want to be his friend he just laughed and continued talking.

Everything about him annoyed the shit out of you, but, in the same sentence, you loved it all. His lisp, how tall he was, the constant smile on his face, his weird black and yellow themed clothing, even his obnoxious 3-D glasses. For every bad thing about him you found two good things. And you don't even know the guy for fucks sake!

And then you gave him your number. Where the sudden confidence came from, you will never know. In any other situation you would've waited for the other person to ask when you wanted to work together. Never would have given them your number and told them to text you. But you did it. Why you did it, again, you will never know. But you're glad you did.

There was one down side to what you did. Your dad had came home early and you were too busy texting Sollux to realize it. You only figured it out when your dad screamed at you mother, asking where you were. You tried to hide that you were texting someone but your dad had come into your room right as you had hit send.

Needless to say your dad wasn't too happy about you having some-what of a social life. If you could even call it that. You'd rather not think about all that he ended up doing to you after that cause it was painful just to think about it. When he was done hitting you, you had checked your phone again, seeing the last message Sollux had sent you had made you smile despite yourself.

You flung the blankets off your body and, like every other morning, the coldness engulfed you. You did your morning routine. Shut the window, sneak to the bathroom, check your injuries, brush your hair and teeth, sneak back to your room, and change.

Today your body looked like one big pin cushion. Not many places on your body didn't have a bruise or cut of some sort. Even the bruise on your face had gotten darker, impossible to miss, and your lip had swollen slightly. You could do nothing to hid the obvious fact someone had hit you. Not that anyone would ask anyways.

Once back in your room you threw on a random pair of jeans, a plain red t shirt and your gray sweatshirt with the cancer symbol. You grabbed your backpack from your desk where you had dropped it and walked out into the hallway.

You knew for a fact that your dad wasn't here, his car wasn't in the drive way and last night while you lay awake you heard him complaining to your mother about how somebody had screwed up all the paperwork and how he had to put in extra hours to fix it. Lucky break. For you anyways.

You walked out of the hallway and into the living room. You found your mother passed out on the couch with an almost empty bottle of god-knows-what on the ground next to her. You roll your eyes and continue to the door.

You start your very short walk to school. For once in your miserable life your some-what looking forward to school. You're not saying you're jumping for joy at the thought of sitting in a cold classroom surrounded by douche bags but you're more willing to sit through it today.

When you finally see the school building in the distance you start to look around for a certain tall, black haired boy. Not that you'd actually do anything if you did find him. You'd probably pretend you didn't see him and keep walking. That's just you and your 'I don't give a shit' façade.

But you couldn't see him anywhere. Maybe he's not going to be here today. Not that you care. That just means you wont have an annoying prick following you around all day. Well, its not like you particularly minded or whatever. But you'd never admit that out loud. Ever.

You walked up the steps of the school to the front doors with much difficulty. You had obviously spent too much time daydreaming this morning so now the hellhole you call school is packed with teenagers. Its not really that hard to maneuver around them since you're so small. Though you sometimes have trouble when they're all moving in the same direction because you kind of just get swept in with them. Which is what's happening to you now.

You get dragged along the hallways until you reached your locker. Surprisingly you were able to get away from the crowds and open your locker without much fuss. You grabbed your English book and a notebook, closed the locker and turned around.

Have you ever heard that the first rule when playing any horror game is to never turn around? Yeah, well you felt like you were playing a horror game and you just disobeyed the rule. When you turned around Captor was standing right behind you, looking like he had just got there. You jumped back, hitting the locker and drop your English book on the ground with a loud bang. You hissed in slight pain and glared up at the nerd standing before you with that annoying smile. "What the fuck captor?!"

He just chuckles, obviously amused with your reaction. "Wow kk, you're jumpy today" He snickers. You just growl and roll your eyes, but the fact that you want to be pissed at him right now doesn't stop the fact that your cheeks flush slightly. It also doesn't help that he bends down and picks your book up, handing it back you, that smile still plastered on his face.

You snatch the book from his outstretched hand, grumbling a quiet thanks. You turn away from him, walking towards the stairs, knowing that he will follow you. Once you get to the English room you hurriedly make your way to the back corner and sit down, seeing Sollux take the seat next to you. He was looking up at the front of the room so you took this opportunity to look him over.

He's, again, wearing tight black jeans that look just loose enough to be comfortable, accompanied by a black and yellow belt. His shirt is plain black and the end of the sleeves are yellow. What is it with this kid and black and yellow? You also noticed that his shoes were mismatched. One was black, the other white. That's weird..

Your eyes reach his face and you find (to your immense gratification) that he hasn't noticed your staring and is still trained on the teacher. His hair is the darkest shade of black you've seen and it sticks up on the sides. How does he make it do that? You doubt he's the type of guy who stands in front of the mirror and does his hair. Either way you like it. It looks kind of cool you guess.

Your eyes travel to his and you realize you hadn't actually seen his eyes yet. That's kind of odd but whatever, to each his own, you guess. He probably has a good reason for hiding them, but you do kind of wish you could see them.

You never really looked too closely at his face before (why would you?) so you never really noticed how attractive he really was. You kind of halt your train of thought and back track. You think he's attractive? He? Him? This BOY? You've never really cared much about your sexuality, or anybody else's, so you never really thought about the possibility that you could be gay. Not that it's that big of a deal. Because to you, its not.

What bothers you is the fact that you think a boy you barely know anything about and have know for only a day is attractive. Its not like you actually like in a romantic way or anything, cause you don't. He turns his head towards you and it’s not until then that you realize you're staring at him like a love struck schoolgirl. You quickly look away, the yard outside the window suddenly becoming very interesting.

Well, that was embarrassing. You can feel your cheeks flare red as you replay what just happened over in your mind. You lay your head down on the desk, almost groaning out loud. You can’t believe you actually just got caught staring at him. If you've learned anything about Sollux, it's that he's not going to let you live this down.

The rest of the day went by basically the same as yesterday and thankfully Sollux never brought up you’re staring session in English. Algebra was the same as everyday, boring as hell. You guys had a test today and even though he just started here, Sollux was the first one done. You were almost the last one done. In biology you guys just went over what you had discovered yesterday and shit. At lunch Sollux continued to pester you, asking you the most random questions ever. Spanish and History were your worst classes just because you got so bored and found it hard to concentrate. Also Sollux isn't in those classes with you so its kind of lonely.

Currently you are both sitting in art class. Sollux is sitting next to you and you both have started your projects. The teacher had filled him in on what he was supposed to do and he even asked you a few questions. You have your sketch book propped up on your knees and you've skipped to a new page. You had already started drawing at home and so you already have the outline of a woman's head on the otherwise blank paper.

You looked over at Sollux, he was drawing something but you weren't quite sure what it was. But it looked like it was supposed to be abstract and it was actually really good. He had drawn a eye on the right side of the paper and it looked like it was being held up with two chains. You couldn't say for sure though.

You both stayed silent for the whole class, completely concentrated on your drawings. An hour later you both are still quietly working when the bell rings. You jump and basically throw your sketchbook across the table. You hear Sollux laugh loudly and you look over at him and glare.

"oh shut up Captor" you growl, getting up to grab your sketch book. He continues to chuckle while gathering his things and you feel your cheeks getting warm again. You grab your book and hold it to your chest, walking out of the classroom with Sollux close behind you.

You walk to your locker and stuff all your crap into your backpack before turning back to Sollux who already had his backpack swung over his shoulder. "You ready?" He asks and you nod your head, a little nervous to be going to his house. You barley knew this kid, he could be a murderer for all you knew. Okay you seriously doubt he's a murderer but still.

You follow him outside where kids are mingling around and cars are driving around. You two walk to his car and you have to admit its pretty nice. He climbs in the drivers seat and you get in on the passenger side. He throws his backpack into the backseat and you just put yours between your legs.

You both stay silent the whole ride, but it was a comfortable silence. You stare out the window, still slightly nervous about the whole thing. You look at Sollux out of the corner of your eye. He's concentrated on the road with one hand one the wheel and one on his leg. He seemed very relaxed.

Sollux pulls into the driveway of his house and you both get out, grabbing your backpacks. You swing yours over your shoulder and follow behind him as he walks to the front door. You stay behind him slightly as he walks through his house to his dining room. "You can just throw your bag here" he says, throwing his own bag onto the table top. You put yours next to his as you hear another voice from somewhere else in the house. "Sollux, sweetie, is that you?" The voice is obviously a woman's and it has a motherly tone to it.

"Yeah mum, it's me" Sollux says back, gesturing for you to follow him. You walk behind him as he heads towards another room. He stops in the doorway and you stand back so you can't be seen by whoever's in the room.

"Is there somebody with you?" There's that voice again. "Yeah my friend's here, we have a project to work on" He looks back at you from behind his glasses and waves you forward until you were standing next to him. You finally got a look at the person that was obviously his mother.

She had the same black hair that he had and bright blue eyes. She had a petite figure an she couldn't be much taller than you, maybe even shorter. "This is Karkat" You were slightly surprised when he spoke because that was the first time he had used your real name. He had just called you kk since you guys met.

The woman stands up and - yup, she's about an inch shorter than you. She sticks her hand out while giving you a warm smile. You don't really want to shake her hand but you don't want to be rude to her so you hesitantly grab her hand and shake it. "Well Karkat, im Elizabeth. It's very nice to meet one of Sollux's friends" You smile back at her and say a quiet 'Its nice to meet you to' before letting her hand go.

Situations like these always made you uncomfortable so you were glad when Sollux spoke up and said you guys were going to go work in his room. He led you up the steps to the second floor and down the hallway to his room. When he opened the door you can't say what you saw surprised you. It was pretty organized with a large bed in the corner and a closet off to the side. His desk had a computer on it along with some other electronics and tangles of wires that all had to of done something.

He walks over to his bed and grabs his laptop from the small bedside table and opened it. You hesitantly sit next to him without saying anything. "Why are you so quiet?" So Sollux noticed your lack of communication. "Because there's nothing to say, asshat" You shoot back, somewhat defensively.

He just chuckles and starts typing. "Whatever you say dude. But seriously what the fuck is an asshat?" He asks looking up and you with a confused face. "It doesn't sound pleasant" He comments and you shrug. "I don't know but it's fun to say" He chuckles and shakes his head, turning back to the laptop.

You two spent the next two hours searching facts about the condor bird thing and fucking around. You probably laughed more in the few hours you spent in Sollux's room then you had all year. When you noticed the time you realized you should be getting home.

"Hey, I should go before my dad flips his shit on me" You say, standing up. Sollux looks up at you and smiles "Ok, do you want to meet at your house on Friday so we can get the rest of this done?" He asks and you're taken off guard. "Oh, uh.. no I don't think that's a good idea" You say, pulling on the sleeve of your sweater. He scrunches his face up and tilts his head. "Why not? I'd say we could do it here but my moms got friends coming over and we really need to get this done." You shake your head "No, we can't do it at my house" You were starting to get pissed off.

He narrowed his eyes - at least, you think he did - and set the laptop aside. "How come?" You glared at him. "Because I said so douchebag" He sighed. "That's not a reason. Look, I want to get this done as soon as possible so I don't see why we can't g-" You interrupted him. "Because I fucking said no Sollux! I don't need to explain myself to you! You need to learn to mind your own god damned business!"

You spin on your heels and stalk out of his room while he calls after you. You keep walking down the steps, into the dining room to grab your backpack, then out the door. Sollux follows you and calls out for you "Don't you need a ride home?" You ignore him and keep walking. You've lived in this town long enough to know the layout of the streets and how to get home.

You walk angrily as you think about how much of an asshole Captor is. Well, you know to him it seems like you over reacted but he doesn't need to pry into your life. You don't want him to know why he can't come to your house and he should respect that!

You continue home, angrily ranting in your head, so preoccupied that you didn't see your fathers car in the driveway. You walk up the steps to your door and open it. Once you close the door you feel a sharp pain to the side of your face and the momentum send you to the ground. You look up to see you dad standing over you with an unbelievably pissed off expression on. "Where the fuck have you been?!" He all but screams at you.

You cringe and stay silent, knowing that you talking will only make it worse. He curl up as he kicks you hard in the stomach. You curl into a tight ball as blow after blow showers down on your frail body. Once he feels satisfied with the damage done he walks away to go down stairs, leaving you on the floor shaking and you mother passed out on the couch still.

You struggle to your feet, tears spilling over your eyelid and down your cheeks from the immense pain. You eventually get to you room and lay down on your bed gently. You sigh and wipe at the tears on your face angrily. You were pathetic and you knew it.

Your phone pinged and you carefully took it out of your pocket.

_**'Karkat, iim 2orry, ii diidn't mean two make you mad"** _

You ignored the text and put your phone away. You rolled over, wincing in pain and tried your best to get some sleep. You weren't sure what you were going to do about Sollux tomorrow but you weren't looking forward to it.


	5. Found Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes! =)

=> Be Sollux  
Last night was probably the worst sleep you've had in a while. Well, you don't usually sleep that well anyways but last night you actually had a legitimate reason to not sleep. You know you shouldn't be as worried about it as you are, normally you would blow it off and forget about it. But…the way Karkat acted…the way he yelled…you feel like he over reacted. He over reacted badly.

You're not sure why he would act that way but you guess you just hit a nerve and by the way he is at school, you guess he's not used to people prodding into his personal business. You've noticed he's very closed off. You can't recall one time over that past few days that he's really talked about himself.

You guess that's what makes him so alluring. You really want to know more about him but he refuses to give out even the most trivial of information. Maybe you did go a little far yesterday…it really was none of your business. But who gets worked up over something so stupid. Karkat apparently.

Weather or not he over reacted or not you're still going to apologize. Geez, that's something new. You apologizing. Usually you'd just ignore this until who ever it was you pissed off came crawling back, like they always do. The only friend of yours you could never piss off was Gamzee. He was always too caught up in his own mind to register that you had insulted him in any way. Or maybe he was just high. You don't know, nor do you care to find out.

You are currently laying in your bed, the covers having been discarded on to the floor hours ago. "Sollux! You're going to be late for school!" You hear your mom call for you but you have yet to move from your place. You're not feeling up to going to school today. You're a little worried about seeing Karkat. Hopefully he forgives you and you haven't just lost the only friend you've made in this place.

You continue to lay there for god knows how long until your mom walks in and stands in the door way. "Sweetie why aren't you dressed yet?" You just shrug and stare up at the ceiling. The next thing you know your mother is standing over you with her hand pressed against your forehead.

"Are you sick?" She asks worriedly, her blue eyes looking down at you with concern. You shake your head "Naw, I'm fine" She tilts her head a bit with a knowing look "Is this about what happened last night? I heard the fight between you and your friend." You shrug once again and avert your gaze back to the ceiling but you know it's no use trying to deny it, she always knows what's wrong with you.

You hear her sigh "I can tell you're upset about this hun. If you want it to get better you have to confront him. Don't sit here in your room and sulk, work it out." You look back to her and smile a bit "I know ma, I will" She smiles back down at you and runs a hand through your hair as if you were a child "Good, I'd hate to not see that boy anymore. Karkat is it? He seems like a nice young man and you've definitely taken a liking to him." She gives you another knowing look before turning and walking out of the room.

Okay, you're not sure what that was about but you really don't have time to ponder the thought. Your phone says it's 7:20 and you have to be in class in twenty five minutes. You're phone also bring to your attention that Karkat never texted you back.  
You sigh and get up, quickly pulling on some blue jeans, your black and yellow belt and a gray long sleeve. Hmmm…not enough yellow. You walk to your closet and spend a minute rummaging through your clothes. Eventually you find what you're looking for.

A yellow, slightly worn out sweatshirt. You've had this article of clothing since you were ten. Your mother had purposefully bought it many sizes too big because she knew you would want to wear it even at age sixteen. You don't know how she came across this sweatshirt but you love it. It's got small bumble bees circling the sleeves and a Gemini sign on the back.

You quickly pull it on and slip you miss match shoes onto your feet before you grab your backpack, a granola bar, kiss your moms cheek and walk out the door. You climb into your car and pull out of the drive way, making your way towards the school.  
The closer you get the more anxious you get. You're not really sure why though, you're sure you'll be able to win Karkat over again. Despite your confidence, a swarm of 'what if's' nest into your skull and buzz around in your brain, diminishing what confidence you had.

You slowly eat the granola bar as you pull into the parking lot of the school, careful of the dumbasses who decide to walk in front of your car while you're driving. Soon you're parked and on your way into the building. You check your phone once again. 7:40. You have five minutes to get to class.

It's pretty easy to maneuver through the crowds so you have no problem getting to your locker. Once you're done putting shit in your locker you plan on quickly going to Karkats locker to see if he's there but the warning bell stops you. You instead make your way to English.

To your relief Karkat is already in the classroom, sitting with his head down and his hood pulled up as kids file into the room. You walk over to your seat and set your stuff down on the desk. You take your seat then turn to face the short boy next to you who had yet to move or acknowledge you in anyway. Actually it seems as if he doesn't even know you're there.

"KK?" You say and you swear he jumps two feet in the air before his head snaps towards you. He has a look of surprise on his face, on what little of his face isn't covered by his hood, and it's kind of cute. But then you notice how the bruise on the side of his cheek had gotten darker.

You're not a doctor but you're pretty sure that bruises aren't supposed to be that shade of red. It looked like something had hit him hard enough to break some blood vessels in his cheek. Or maybe not, like before, you're not a doctor. But his cheek was a nasty combination of purple and red, that you know for sure.

The surprise on his face vanishes as quickly as it appeared and he turns his head back downwards. You start to say something along the lines of 'What happened to your cheek?' but you're interrupted by the teacher announcing class was to begin. You sigh and slouch in your seat, reluctantly turning your attention to the teacher and directed away from Karkat at the moment.  
The rest of the day seemed like an endless cat and mouse game. You the cat and Karkat the mouse. You had tried to talk to him all day but he always found one way or another to slink away from you or you were unable to hold a conversation because of teachers wanting you to be quiet.

He hadn't been at lunch so you ate alone, not that you minded much. You just wished Karkat was there to keep you company and entertain you. Of course you had no chance for the next to classes to attempt to talk to Karkat because you didn't have those classes with him but you did use your time to think up what to say to him when you did get the chance in art class.  
But now, while you're walking into the art room, all those preplanned words and apologize wipe from your mind. You immediately see Karkat when you walk in. He's seated, again with his hood pulled up with his sketch book propped up on his knees.

You sigh and walk over to him, plopping down in the chair beside him. He doesn't even spare you a glance. "How long do you plan on avoiding and ignoring me?" You ask, somewhat irritated. He still doesn't acknowledge your presence.

You let out a deep breath and take out your drawing you're working on. "Look Karkat, I'm sorry. I get it. I should've respected your personal business and I'm sorry. I don't know what more you want from me." This time he glances at you quickly before turning back to his drawing.

You huff and sink down in your seat, starting to work on your drawing. You're not really sure what it is yet. You recall that dream you had a few nights ago and just sketch whatever comes to mind related to that dream. It's not the prettiest picture in the world, actually you think it has a little bit of a horror edge to it and you hope the teacher doesn't mind.

Throughout the class you talk to Karkat, despite him not talking back. A few people give you odd looks but you just keep   
talking, hoping that he'll respond. He doesn't. After a while you just give up and stop. You sit there for the next twenty minutes in silence and just focus your attention on drawing.

The bell rings and you both get up out of your seats. You follow Karkat over to the sink as he washes his hands, trying to get off all the pencil smudges while you put your own materials away.

But something catches your eye. Karkat had rolled the sleeves of his sweater up to his elbows so know most of his arms were showing. That fact wasn't really what caught your attention. No, what you noticed was an ugly bruise wrapping around his wrist that looks suspiciously like a hand print. You also take notice of the tiny cuts in his hands that you had seen the first time you met him.

You tilt your head a bit and study the marks. You can also see tiny bruises that are fading away and you can't help but wonder where they came from. The cuts on his hands could be an accident, maybe a glass cup broke in his hands or something. But the large bruise shaped like a hand you severely doubt was any kind of accident.

He dries his hands off but before he can pull the sleeves back down you reach out and grab one of his hands. You can feel his freeze out of surprise but you don't care. You move closer and study the bruise on his wrist. "What's this from?"

Your words seem to have pulled him out of whatever trance he was in cause he jerks his arm out of your grasp. "None of your fucking business" These are the first words he's said to you all day and when you look up at his face you can't really tell what he's thinking. His face looks mad but his eyes look…you don't know. Scared? But why?

It had never crossed your mind before that someone could have cause all the marks he had. Why would it have? You've known the guy for what? Three days now? That's not even close to enough time to really get to know someone so why would that fact ever have crossed your mind? But you think now, standing in front of him as he tries to glare at you but is obviously failing, why didn't it cross your mind?

Were you so blind that you couldn't see the pattern occurring here? It seems this boy comes to school each day with some sort of new, visible mark. How does nobody notice? Why doesn't anyone ask? Why haven't you asked?

Karkat huffs and turns on his heels, grabbing his backpack and stomping out of the room. You quickly grab your own backpack and go after him. You follow him as he maneuvers around in the crowd of kids and as he leaves out the doors. Once you're both out of the crowd you jog to catch up, grabbing his shoulder to stop him. You can feel him freeze up a bit, again, as you grab him.

"Karkat would you stop running away from me? I'm sorry okay? I said it before. I should've poked into your personal life. But there is one thing I need to know. How did you get that bruise?"

He turns to look at you, seemingly less angry but still doing his best to glare at you. "It's none of your business Captor. I've said it before now fuck off okay?" He turns to leave again but you grab his hand.

"Who did it?" You ask softly. You don't usually ever talk softly so it kind of takes you by surprise. Karkat sighs and turns his gaze to the ground. You stay silent, hoping that he'll answer but minutes pass and he still doesn't.

"Please kk, please tell me." This time when he looks up at you the anger is no longer present on his face but what is scares you more than his anger. Tears have formed in the corner of his eyes but he looks like he's struggling to hold them back. Like he's trying not to seem weak.

You let go of his hand and move your own to grip his chin gently, making him look up more. "Karkat, what's going on?" What happens now you can only describe as he breaks. Like a cracked glass just waiting for enough force to make it shatter. And he just shattered.

He practically falls against your chest and you can feel the silent sobs racking his body as you quickly wrap your arms around his small frame, afraid that if you didn't he would fall to the ground. You've never been in this situation before, you have no idea how to react. So you just hold him

His sobs never become audible but you can feel them by the way he's pressed against you. You don't know how long you stand there, in the parking lot of the school but it must have been a while before Karkat calms down.

Once his sobbing stop he keeps his face buried in the fabric of your sweatshirt and his arms hugging you tight around your stomach. He doesn't let go and you don't really mind. You just hold him and hope that soon he'll tell you what the fuck is going on.


	6. Reasons Why

=> Be Karkat

  
  


You don't know what took over you but you hate yourself for it. You just...couldn't hold it in anymore. Sollux he...he just sounded so concerned about you. You've never had that before. You've never had someone actually care. You guess it was just a little overwhelming. So you collapsed against him, quietly sobbing in the middle of the school parking lot. How charming.

 

You can remember a time, a long time ago, when your dad loved you. Or so you thought. When he was nice to you. When you felt loved like any five year old boy should. When your mother didn't drink. When your dad never hit you. When your parents got along. When there was no lying. Where there was no fear of going home. When there was no fear. No fear. That would be nice.

 

You suppose that's what makes you push Sollux away. He had held you as you silently cried and you had wrapped your arms around him, but now, you push him away, stumbling back a few steps. Your mind goes back to all the times your dad had hugged you and told him he loved you and that you were the best thing that ever happened. But he lied. And so will Sollux.

 

He will lie and he will do exactly what your father did. He will gain your trust then beat you down until your confidence no longer stands. "Karkat?" You look up at Sollux with new tears forming in your eyes but for a whole new reason. Not because of loneliness or a feeling of being unloved. But because of fear. Because you know he will hurt you. You know it.

 

He reaches out to you but you stumble away from him, almost tripping over yourself. He pulled his hand back, a thoroughly confused look plastered onto his face but you don't get to hear what he says next because you turn and run. You run as fast as you can and you can hear Sollux calling out your name but you know he's not following you.

 

You keep running till you reach your house and you run inside, closing the door behind you. Your dad wasn't home yet but your mom was, for the first time since you can remember, completely sober. She turns to you from where she was washing one of the windows and her eyes suddenly fill with concern. She puts her stuff down and hurries over to you. "My gosh Karkat what happened to you?"

 

You remember a time when she would say that and you would sit down with her, your head in her lap and her fingers running through your hair as you tell her about what had happened. But not now. Now you push past her and walk quickly. She doesn't try to stop you and you didn't think she would.

 

Once in your room you slam the door and collapse down on your bed. You refuse to let yourself cry so you just lay there, struggling to keep the tears at bay when your phone goes off. You ignore it, but it goes off again. And again. And again until you finally snatch it up and read the messages.

 

_**'karkat? are you okay?'** _

 

_**'kk plea2e an2wer me'** _

 

_**'come on kk, why diid you run away liike that?** _

 

_**'karkat plea2e, thii2 ii2 the tiime where youre 2uppo2ed two explaiin two me what2 goiing on'** _

 

_**'LEAVE ME ALONE'** _

 

You send him a quick message, hoping he'll get the point and stop texting you but that obviously doesn't happen.

 

_**'why? what diid ii do? what2 goiing on?'** _

 

_**'NOTHING'S GOING ON, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE'** _

 

_**'that2 bull2hiit. you ran away from me liike a friightened cat. why?'** _

 

_**'I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT CAPTOR NOW LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE'** _

 

_**'no. iim not goiing to fuckiing leave you alone. no matter how many tiime2 you tell me two iit2 not goiing two happen. there ii2 obviiou2ly 2omethiing wrong and ii want to know what iit ii2'** _

 

_**'WHY DO YOU CARE?'** _

 

_**'ii dont know. but i do and iim not goiing to leave you alone, you can't be alone your whole liife karkat. you have to let 2omeone iin eventually.'** _

 

_**'NO I DONT'** _

 

_**'plea2e kk.'** _

 

_**'WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME SOLLUX?'** _

 

_**'where do you liive?'** _

 

_**'WHAT?'** _

 

_**'where do you liive?'** _

 

_**'...56 TRIAL STREET. WHY?'** _

 

_**'iill be there iin a miinute'** _

 

_**'WHAT? NO. NO, DON'T YOU DARE SOLLUX'** _

 

After that he stops texting you back and you're starting to get more than a little worried. What if he really does decide to come here? What if your dad come home while he's here? Oh god, you hope Sollux has enough brain cells to not come. But your hope shatters as you hear a knock at the door.

 

Your mother answers it and for the first time you're glad she's sober. You hear him walking down the hallway to your room and you pull the blanket over head, not wanting to see him. You can hear your door open then silence.

 

"Do you mind explaining to me what's going on now?" You almost visibly jump when you realize his voice is coming from right next to your bed but you don't answer. You just snuggle deeper into your bed and curl up, not unlike a cat. You hear him sigh and then you feel your bed dip slightly. He falls silent and so do you, neither one of you daring to break the tension that has fallen over the room.

 

But sooner or late you know something will have to be done, so you speak up, your voice barely above a whisper. "Why are you here?" Sollux stays silent for a minute and you're not sure if he heard you but then he speaks. "Because you ran away from me and the look on your face was so...scared. I just wanted to make sure you were okay..."

 

Somehow you feel there is more than that but you accept the answer. "Why do you care?" You realize you still haven't come out from under your blankets so you pull them down a bit so you can see the boy sitting on your bed. He's not looking at you and you doubt he realizes you've moved at all. He staring forward towards your closet as he thinks about your question.

 

"I don't know." His voice is nothing above a whisper but the room is so quiet you have no problem hearing him. "I just do. I've only known you for a few days but you're the only one who gave enough fucks to actually interact with me. I don't know if you think so but i'd like to think of you as a friend. Maybe that's why I care, I don't know."

 

His gaze never shifts to you but you keep your eyes locked on his face as he talks. You never had a friend before. Well, none that you really felt cared about you. None that ever stayed with you. They always pretended then left you once they were satisfied with the amount of damage they had done to you. But Sollux...you can't tell. You can't tell if he's telling the truth. You want to believe him but the logical part of your brain wants you to tell him to fuck off and leave you alone.

 

But since when did you ever use logic? Usually you just do what feels right. That's gotten you into a lot of trouble in the past but now, you're not sure what feels right. But you don't want him to leave. You don't know why but you want him to stay. He finally turns to you, your eyes connecting with those obnoxious 3-D glasses of his.

 

You, being the curious fucker you are, sit up and reach forward, grabbing the arms of his glasses. He doesn't make any move to protest so you gently take them off and fold them up. His eyes are closed and you wait patiently for him to open them. After a long sigh his eyes open and you finally get a look at them.

 

You didn't know eyes could be two different colors. One of them was the brightest blue you had ever seen and the other was really dark brown. But what made them so amazing was the small flecks of gold, or maybe yellow, in them. You just stare in awe at his eyes until he looks down, making it so you could no longer see them.

 

You shake out of your thoughts as he looks away and you bite the inside of your cheek, unsure of really how to respond to seeing his eyes. You look down at the glasses in your hand them back up at him. "Why do you wear these?" He shrugs "They hide my eyes." You can't even comprehend why he would ever want to do that. Then you remember how you used to feel about your eyes. You used to feel like a freak but soon you just came to terms with it and stopped caring.

 

"Why would you want to do that?" He looks back up at you and you're, once again, shocked by the pure beauty of his eyes. "Are you blind? They're two different colors. That's not normal." You tilt your head a bit. "Who gives a fuck about being normal?"

 

He sighs "They're freakish" "No, they're beautiful" The words slip out before you can really think about what youre saying and your face goes red. His eyebrows go up and he stays silent which just makes you more nervous than you already were. You look down at your hands and fiddle with his glasses.

 

"You think they're beautiful?" You hear him speak, a bit quieter than before and, at the risk of looking like an even bigger idiot, you nod. He once again goes quiet and you go back to fiddling with his glasses careful not to break them. Suddenly you find yourself looking back into his eyes and you realize he's put a hand under your chin and forced you to look up.

 

"What happened today?" He whispers, looking at you intently. You sigh and try to look down but his hand is still holding your head in place so you settle for looking off to the side. "Nothing"

 

"Karkat, don't lie to me. I know all those bruises and cuts weren't an accident." You're about to give another bullshit excuse when you hear a car pull into the driveway and your eyes widened. "Shit, you have to go!" you say quickly, pulling away from him as you put his glasses back onto his face.

 

He looks really confused but doesn't refuse as you stand up and pull him to his feet. "What? Why?" "you just do, please" You're about to push him out into the hallway and out the door but it's too late, you can hear your mom and dad talking in the living room. You quickly pull him back into the room and the volume of your parents voices get louder, your moms not drunk this time so she obviously isn't backing down.

 

You look to Sollux and see he looks very confused but is listening to your parents. Suddenly you hear a loud crash and you jump against his side. You're dad had a bad day, you know it. Your door flies open and your dad stand in the doorway, glaring in at you for a second before realizing there was someone else in the room.

 

He looks towards Sollux and scowls "Who the hell are you?" You look up at him, hoping you don't look too frightened but he seems as calm as ever. "My names Sollux, sir" He has a blank expression on his face as your dad steps forward. You have to admit it's sort of funny how Sollux is about a half an inch taller than your dad. He gets close to Sollux's face and studies him. It lasts for about thirty seconds before your dad speaks up again. "Why are you in my house?"

 

"I was talking with your son" Sollux answers, not missing a beat. Your dads eyes flicker to you and you stiffen. You've positioned yourself behind Sollux slightly and you've grabbed his hand, holding it tightly but in a position that your dad can't see your entwined hands. Your dad looks back to Sollux with a disgusted look on his face. "Why would you want to talk to this piece of shit?"

 

You flinch at your dads very direct approach and you can see Sollux raise an eyebrow. "With all due respect sir, your son is not a piece of shit" You dad rolls his eyes and finally asks the question you knew he would ask. "What the fuck is wrong with your speech?"

 

You can feel Sollux stiffen a bit but not visibly. "I was born with it" He says through a clenched jaw. You guess he doesn't like people bringing it up. Well you wouldn't like if people brought it up either if you were him. Your father just shrugs and backs up. "Whatever. If you want to be involved with a pathetic kid like my son then go ahead" He then turn and walks out of the room, stumbling a bit.

 

He obviously had a few drinks because he almost falls on his face on the way out, slamming your bedroom door. You relax a bit but you still grip his hand tightly, thankful that he was here cause if he wasn't you would have a few more bruises to add to the collection by now.

 

Sollux turns to you, not letting go of your hand. "What the fuck was that about? Is he always like that?" you nod and look down, a little ashamed for your father. He says silent for a minute "...It's him isn't it?" You look back up at him confused and he runs a finger over the bruise on your cheek. You realize what he's talking about and you look away once again.

 

"I really don't want to talk about it" You whisper. "Okay" To your surprise he doesn't go on to ask you more questions and just accepts your answer. Before you can really respond he lets go of your hand and hugs you. Hesitantly you wrap your arms around his neck and hug him back. After a few second you nuzzle your face into his neck, feeling a sense of security that you haven't felt for a while. Maybe Sollux won't hurt you like everyone else. You can only hope.


	7. Mixed Feelings

=> Be Sollux

 

After Karkats dad left you sat down with Karkat on his bed and let him sit in your lap, his arms around your neck and his face buried in your shirt. You can hear his parents fighting quite clearly, his father was yelling at his mother about something to do with Karkat and his mother was yelling back, surprisingly she was sticking up for him. Karkat, curled up in your lap, was trembling slightly.

 

You did your best to comfort him as the yelling progressed but soon after there was the slam of a door and the sound of a car pulling out of the driveway. Despite the fact the yelling had stopped Karkat still stayed in your lap until his door opened. His mother had come in only to see that you were still here. She had smiled, wished you two a good night and walked back out. After that Karkat had pulled you down to lay on the bed and curled up next to you and soon you both had fallen asleep.

 

Now it is probably about eight o'clock. You know school has already started but it's Friday and you've decided that Karkat could use a break from school today. You lay awake in Karkats bed, he's still asleep, curled up in a ball at your side. You've been awake for at least an hour but the boy next to you has slept soundly, breathing softly. His head is resting on your chest and your arm and curled around him, almost protectively.

 

You watch him as he sleeps, running your fingers through his hair lightly. You have to admit you feel a little creepy watching him sleep but there's not much more you can do since he's gripping onto your shirt, preventing you from moving even if you wanted to. You jump a bit as your phone goes off and you quickly pull it out of your pocket and silence it before Karkat wakes up. But it's too late. He shifts and mumbles quietly, his eyes opening a bit. At first he looks confused but then he turns his head to look at you and a look of realization dawns over him.

 

He yawns and lets go of you, looking over at your phone that's in your hand. His eyes go wide and he sits up. "Why didn't you wake me up?! We're late for school!" You grab his arm as he tries to get out of the bed. "Kk calm down, I figured you'd want a day off. I didn't wake you cause we're not going today." He looks over at you "But.." "No buts, we're not going." He sighs and lays back down, his head going back to rest on your chest.

 

You look at your phone, seeing you have a message from your mother. That's no surprise since you didn't tell her you were staying with Karkat. You quickly open the message and red it over.

 

'Hello honey, i'm guessing that you spent the night at Karkats but there is someone waiting here for you so if you could come home that would be great. -Love you'

 

You sigh and lock your phone, looking back to Karkat. "I have to go" He looks up at you and frowns. "Why?" "My mother says someone is waiting for me at my house" He sighs and sits up so that you can you get up. You stand up and stretched, yawning a bit. He stays sitting on the bed, looking up at you and you lean over and quickly kiss his forehead.

 

He looks a little surprised but doesn't say anything. "I'll see you later Kk" He nods and watches as you walk out into the hallway. You close his door behind you and walk out to the living room, going towards the door. "Leaving so soon?" You look behind you to see Karkats mother stands at the kitchen counter drinking coffee. "Yeah, i have to get home to my mother" She nods then smiles at you. "Well thank you for coming over, i'm sure it meant a lot to Karkat" You nod and turn back around walking out the door. You walk to where you parked your car and climb in, driving off towards your house.

 

You get there in under ten minutes and get out of the car. There's another car in your driveway, one that looks vaguely familiar but you can't quite figure out whose it is.  You walk inside and your mother, like Karkats, is standing in the kitchen, drinking coffee. When you walk in she turns to you and smile. "There is a girl upstairs in your room. One of your friends for your old school" You raise an eyebrow and nod, starting up the stairs. You can't think of any girls from your old school that would want to visit you but once you open your bedroom door you understand.

 

Rose sits in the chair at your desk, reading something on her phone. You close the door and she looks up and smiles a bit. "Hello Sollux, it's good to see you again" You cross your arms and sit across from her on your bed. "Yeah, it's great to see you too. Why are you here?" She rolls her eyes "Can't i visit a friend once in a while" "Rose, we both know there is a different reason you're here" She sits up straighter and crosses her legs. She's wearing a long dress the reaches past her knees and a black sweatshirt.

 

"I just wanted to see how you were doing. Have you made any friends yet?" You hesitate then nod. "Yeah..one." She brightens up a bit and you know what's coming. "Really? What's his name?" "How do you know it's a boy?" "Cause i know you. Am i wrong?" You sighs and lean back "Well..no. His name is Karkat" She raises an eyebrow "Karkat? That's an odd name. What's he like?"

 

You roll your eyes behind your glasses and lay back on your bed. "Why do you want to know" You can no longer see Rose but you know she's smirking. "Oh come on Sollux, tell me about him" You sigh and start talking. You talk about his tendency to get angry, how he seems shy but he's really not, how it's hard to make him smile but you can sometimes, how he's a lot of fun to be around, how he's fun to annoy, and how he swears a lot. You leave out anything involving his family but you do tell her about how you two have spent your few days together.

 

When you're done you sit up a bit and look at her. She siting forward slightly, her legs crosses and her arms resting on her knee, listening intently. She also has a smirk on her face and you know she's going to do that weird thing where she picks apart your brain. It makes you really uncomfortable when she does that. You watch her as she stares at you and you feel like she's looking right through you. Soon she speaks up.

 

"So you like him?" You raises an eyebrow. "Uh...yeah?" She chuckles "You seem to like him a lot more than you realize" Yup, you were right, she's going to use her psychology shit on you. "What's that supposed to mean?" She smiles "The way you talk about him, it seems like you have more feelings for him than just friendship" You stare at her in disbelief but that doesn't stop your cheeks from going red. "T-that..that's not true.."

 

Youre not sure if what just came out of your mouth is a hundred percent true. You've never thought about Karkat in a more than friends way. Maybe you should... Or maybe not. Ga, you’re so confused! Rose chuckles and stands up "Well Sollux, i'll leave you to your own thoughts now. It's great to see you doing so well at this school. We all miss you. I will see you later" With that she walks out of your room, leaving your head swimming.

 

You lay back down and stare at the ceiling. Is she right? Do you like Karkat more than a friend? Oh who are you kidding? Rose is always right. You can't remember a time when she wasn't. But...you can't wrap your mind around the thought of being with Karkat. Then you think back to last night. The way you held him. That's not something friends do. The way you cuddled with him last night, how you held his hand when his dad came in. All thing to guys that are just friends don't do.

 

So...would being together with him really be all that different? The only difference and that you could kiss him. But do you want that? Do you want to kiss him? ...You don't know. You can't really imagine Karkat being your boyfriend. But...somehow you can. You mean...maybe you do want to be with Karkat. The thought of kissing him makes you blush.

  
You groan and roll over, shoving your face into your pillow while images run through your head. Some are images of you kissing him and holding him but others are less innocent. Some are images of him under you, moaning and- okay, nope, stop right there! You sigh and sit up, running a hand through your hair. Maybe you do want to kiss Karkat....


	8. The Past Haunts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope none of you have a particular attachment to Eridan cause i made him sort of an asshole.. Well enjoy ^.^

=> Be Sollux

 

You have to admit, you've been avoiding Karkat. He's texted and called you but you've ignored them all. You feel like an asshole but your head is a jumbled mess and talking with Karkat will only confuse your father. Ever since Rose left on Friday (you're still wondering why she wasn't at school and how she knew you weren't) you can't stop thinking about what being with Karkat would be like. Some thoughts of yours were sweet and innocent, like kissing him, holding his hand, and cuddling him. Others were more...dirty.

 

And thinking of all of this has only succeeded in giving you a massive headache. Your mom has left you mostly alone all weekend and you're grateful. But now, on Sunday night as you lay face down on your bed, you hear your door open. you know it's not your mother, she always knocks. You suspect it's Rose again, or maybe Karkat. You lift your head from your pillow and look towards the door. Seeing someone you never wanted to see again. Eridan Ampora, your ex-boyfriend.

 

The story of you two is one you don't want to relive. A story you've never told anyone. Two years ago, when Eridan still went to school with you, you dated him. It was a relationship that had all you could ever want. You thought you had loved him. So after five months, you made the worst decision. You slept with him. Then he dumped you. After being devastated and depressed for a week you went back to school. You found out that it was all a dare. It was all a ploy to get you to have sex with him. And it worked. You fell for it. Soon after, Eridan moved, and you were glad. But all his friends still made fun of you. So you did the only thing you could do. You went up to the biggest guy there, and you punched him the face. After that the teasing stopped, thankfully.

 

And now here is, standing in your room, smirking slightly and supporting that dumb-as-fuck purple streak in his hair. You sit up slowly, staring at him. He's wearing a purple sweatshirt and black skinny jeans. You would've thought he looked good in them if you weren't so busy glaring at him. "Sol, it's great to see you again" His voice makes you cringe and if looks could kill, he'd be dead three times over now. He's still smirking, like he knows something that you don't "What the fuck are you doing here?" You growl, getting straight to the point. He only continues to smirk. "I can't visit my ex without being questioned?" There goes that weird ass accent you used to think was cute.

 

"No you can't, now leave" He closes your bedroom door and walks towards you. Out of reflex you scoot back till your back hits the wall. He sits on the edge of your bed. He looks at you with eyes that look...almost sad. You look back at him cautiously and he sighs. "Sol...I’m sorry" You just stare at him, that's not what you were expecting at all. "y-you're what?" He looks down to his hands and fumbles with them. "I'm sorry..for everything. I didn't mean for it all to happen and..well, I miss you."

 

You stare at him wide-eyed. For a year and a half you waited for him to utter those words. For so long you wanted this. You wanted him to say sorry and for him to love you. But now...now you don't know. You can't deny your feelings for him cause they're there. They'll always be there. He was the first person you loved, of course you'll always have feelings for him. But are they romantic feelings? You may still love him, but are you in love with him? "Sollux, please. I really want another chance at us" You stay silent unsure of what to say but you do move so you're sitting next to him, no longer feeling threatened.

 

You stare at the ground and refuse to make eye contact with him. He broke your heart and you know you should tell him to get his ass out. But you don't. You feel a grip on your chin and suddenly you're looking into the blue-purple eyes you used to get lost in. "Please Sol, just one more chance?" You see him lean in slowly, giving you enough time to stop him. But you don't. You let him lean forward. You let his lips touch yours. You let it happen. Then you do something you know you'll regret later. You kiss him back. Then you jump back away from him as your door slams open.

 

"Captor! Wh-" You whip your head to see Karkat standing in the doorway, his face a mix of surprise and confusion. You're instantly reminded of what you've thought of all weekend. "o-oh..Karkat i-" "I-I need to go" He turns quickly and walks out of your room in a hurry. You stand up to go after him but you're stopped by Eridan grabbing your hand. "Sol? What's wrong? Who is he?" You stumble over your words "H-He's a uh, a f-friend.." You pull out of his grip

 

"I have to go see him. You should leave. Don't come back." You hurry out of the room, hoping he's gone by the time you get back. You know you're not together with Karkat but you feel as if you did something horrible to him. The look on his face right before he turned around looked like he was about to cry. You don't know why he would cry about this but you want to make sure he's okay.

 

=>Be Karkat

 

You're so fucking stupid! What the hell were you thinking?! Why would you ever trust him?! You kick a nearby tree in anger as more tears fall down your cheeks. You can't even really explain why you're so angry. Sollux has been ignoring you ever since he left your house on Friday. So you went to see if he was alright or if he was just being an asshole. And you walk in on him making out with some hipster kid you've never seen before.

 

It's no use. You can't deny it anymore. You have feelings for him. That makes you so angry. Why do you have to fall for every person that's nice to you?! You groan and drop to the ground, leaning against the tree you had previously kicked. After leaving Sollux's house you ran to the woods, knowing you could be alone here. You know almost every inch of these woods. You liked to explore amongst the trees when things at home get particularly bad. You lean your head back and let yourself cry. What does that hipster asshole have that you don't? Why does Sollux have to like him?

 

Of course he does. Because he's not a complete wreck from a dysfunctional family like you. You don't deserve someone like Sollux. You just hope after your anger dies down you two can still be friends. You don't want to be alone again. Oh god, you don't want to be alone. You bring your knees to your chest and lay your head down on them. What if he doesn't want to be friends with you now? You don't want to be lonely again. But...you don't want to be hurt either. You hadn't realized you had started sobbing audibly until you heard Sollux. "Kk?"

 

You jump and look up. He's standing next to you, looking down at you with worried eyes. You can't look at him without wanting to sob again so you lay your head back down on your knees so you dont have to look at him. You hear a shuffling then suddenly arms around you and you stiffen. You peak over and see Sollux sitting next to you, his arms wrapped around you in a hug. "Kk, what's wrong" "Nothing" Is all you mutter before placing you head back down. You hear him sigh "Then why are you crying?" You stay silent "Look, i'm sorry i ignored you this weekend, i've just got a lot on my mind." You lift your head and glare half-heartedly at him "If you didn't want to be my friend you could've just fucking said so."

 

He looks surprised but then he furrows his eyebrows. "If i didn't want to be your friend why would i be here now?" You shrug and but your head back down. "Kk, what's wrong" You sigh "Nothing im fine" "That's bullshit and you know it" You stay silent, refusing to look him in the eye. "...Is this about Eridan?" You finally look at him "Who?" "Eridan. The guy i was with in my room."You look away, half embarrassed. "No.." Sollux stays quiet for a moment before speaking up. "Look Karkat, whatever me and Eridan had before, it's over"

 

You scoff and roll your eyes "Yea that's why you were fucking making out with him in your room" He sighs and you look over to see him hanging his head. "I...I know it looks weird. But...I don't want him. He did a horrible thing to me and i can never forgive him. I know I kissed him but in doing that i realized i'm no longer in love with him" He never once looks at you and you wonder what this Eridan guy could've done that was so bad. "What'd he do?" You whisper, your eyes trained on his glasses, trying to see his eyes.

 

You see him swallow hard before he talks, his voice cracking a bit. "u-um...well..i dated him for a few months. Then i s- uh..then i slept with him...after that he dumped me. I found out it was all fake. Everything." You can see his bottom lip quivering and then a tear roll down his cheek. Without thinking you move to wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him close to you. He wraps his arms tighter around your torso and lays his head on your shoulder. You can feel his body shaking with what you guess is silent sobs. You never thought you'd see Sollux like this. You always thought he was a strong person. Well you guess if this happened to you, you'd be sobbing too.

 

You hold him for another minute before he pulls back, taking off his glasses and wiping at him eyes. "Are you okay Sollux?" He nods and goes to put his glasses back on but you stop him. He looks up at you, one eyebrow raised. You feel your face heat up slightly "I like seeing your eyes" He stares at you for a moment before smiling, putting his glasses down. "Well, i'm glad someone likes them" You smiles slightly and look down, playing with your hands. You both stay silent for a few minutes before Sollux speaks up. "kk, why were you crying" You bite your lip, if anytime is a good time to say you have feelings for him, it's now. You sigh and look to him. "w-well...i guess it just...bothered me that...um..y-you and..um.." You can't see to form the right words so you stop, looking down to your hands, acting like they're the most interesting things in the world right now.

 

"Bothered you that i what? That i kissed him?" You hesitate then nod shyly. God you feel like the biggest wimp, you can't even say it out loud. He stays silent and that just makes you nervous. You feel like getting up and running as far as you can to get away from him but you don't. Instead you stare at the ground and play with the grass. The next thing you know you're staring into Sollux's eyes, his hand holding your chin. He stares into your eyes and you stare back. You've never seen eyes so pretty before. You feel a bit weird calling Sollux's eyes pretty but you can't think of any other word."I don't want him." He whispers and you realize just how close his face is to yours, only a few inches separate you two.

 

You bite your lip and before you can really comprehend what you're saying, you already say it. "Who do you want?" You don't have time to swear at yourself mentally because his lips are on yours. You're so surprised that you freeze. Your eyes widen but you soon comprehend what's going on. Sollux is kissing you. He's kissing you. He's kissing you. Finally you kiss back, letting your eyes fall closed. His hand is still holding your chin and you can feel his lips moving against yours. You're stomach is twisting and you feel like your heart by rip out of your chest and fly away. You can't believe this is happening. You just met this boy. A week ago you didn't know who Sollux Captor was. Three days ago, if someone was to ask you if you wanted to kiss him, you would've said hell no.

 

But now. Now as you sit in the woods, his lips against yours, you realize how much you really like him. He's been so nice to you with no reason for doing so. He just accepted you the way you are and has yet to tell you that how you act or what you like is wrong. You're snapped out of your thoughts when he pulls away. You open your eyes to see his looking back at you. "You." It takes you a second to realize what he's talking about but when you do, you blush. "r-really?" He chuckles and nods.

 

You smile then throw yourself forward, wrapping your arms around his neck. He leans back a bit as you hit him but wraps his arms around your torso and you nuzzle your face against his neck, smiling widely. The last time you remember being this happy was when you were five and your dad took you to the amusement park. Not even thought of your dad can ruin this moment. After a few minutes of just sitting there in his arms he speaks up. "We should leave" You nod and let him go, backing up.

 

He stands up and holds out a hand out to you. You grab it and stand up but he doesn't let go as you too walk out of the woods. "Can we go to your house? I don't want to go home yet" He looks to you and nods, smiling. "Yeah sure." You guys walk in silence for a few minutes hand in hand as you walk back to Sollux's house. "I'm sorry for ignoring you kk" He says, not looking at you. You shrug. "It's okay" "I was kind of having a hard time figuring out my feelings for you so i uh, kinda just wanted to think without being distracted..." You blush a bit but chuckle. "I distract you?" You can see him roll his eyes. "Yes very much, your typing is distracting and annoying" "Oh fuck you" He smirks a bit and you two walk into his house. "We'll get to that later"

 

 


	9. Dreams And Pain

=> Be Sollux

 

_You felt a presence.. It was like there was someone there with you, it was a happy feeling, so familiar. Though, you could see nothing. Then the feeling went…dark. Evil. Like someone or something was trying to take your source of happiness away from you. You heard them screaming, but you couldn't see them, you couldn't help them, they were so close. They were yelling things you couldn't make out, that you couldn't understand, their voice fading, their beautiful voice, so familiar. Then it went silent. A defining silence that made your insides twist with agony. Then you heard them scream again, but this time you heard what they said, they screamed your name begging for you to help them, but you couldn't. You just couldn't help. "Sollux!”_

 

You sit straight up in your bed, panting heavily. You can feel the moisture on your face and you know you’ve been crying in your sleep. You reach your hand up and swipe at your cheeks. You look over at the sleeping figure next to you and you feel relieved you didn’t wake him up on accident. Karkats hair is tousled and his breathing is heavy. He was sound asleep, even though you had to stay awake until midnight with him until he actually fell asleep.

 

After you two got to your house last night you had sat on the couch and watched a movie, Karkat cuddled against your side. He had insisted on watching 50 First Dates and you almost fell asleep during the movie. After that you both had come up stairs and laid down and attempted to sleep.

 

You think back to your dream. You’ve had it before, the day before you started school. You play the dream again in your head, going over every little detail you could remember. You had felt warm in the beginning. Not the physical warmness, like an internal warmness. You felt safe and...loved. Then you went cold, like someone had shoved you out into the night air. You no longer felt safe. And the voice, that voice… You look down as karkat as he turns a bit in his sleep. He looks so peaceful in his sleep, like he- Karkat! Your mouth drops open as you stare at your boyfriends sleeping form. It’s Karkat. That voice. But...that’s impossible. You hadn’t even met him the first time you heard it.

 

But you’re positive it’s Karkat's voice. You will never forget what he sounds like. His sort of raspy voice that gets higher when he’s angry or ranting about something. The way it had in your dream when he called out for you… He needed you...But why? Why do you have to protect him? From what? His dad? Well, sure his life at home isn’t ideal but..it can’t be that bad, right? Nothing you need to protect him from. He can handle himself.

 

The thing is, you’re not so sure you believe that. Maybe something really is wrong. Maybe you do need to protect him. You look over his face, he looks so innocent when he sleeps. You smile softly and lift your hand to run your fingers through his hair. You pull your hand back and grab your phone to check the time. 5:39. You still have an hour before you and Karkat have to get up for school. You might as well take a shower.

 

You get off the bed, careful not to wake your sleeping boyfriend. You walk out of your room and down the hallway to the bathroom. For the next forty five minutes you stand in the shower, water hitting against your back as you stare off into space, thinking about your dream. Soon you realize you should get out and wake Karkat so you turn the shower off and step out, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around your waist. You then walk back to your room in nothing but a towel.

 

=> Be Karkat

 

You wake up and reach out for Sollux but your hand lands on an empty spot on the bed. You open your eyes slowly, realizing Sollux isn’t laying next to you anymore. You sit up and stretch. You rub your eyes and yawn as the bedroom door opens. You look over and your face turns red as your boyfriend walk in wearing nothing but a towel, his hair wet and his chest uncovered and visible. In the few seconds you have before he notices your up, you look him over.

 

His hair hangs in his face, damp and sticking out in different directions. Your eyes travel down to his bare chest. He’s toned but doesn’t have too much muscles, not that you’re complaining. Your gaze continues to trail down to his stomach and eventually to where the towel is, resting lowly on his hips.

 

“Are you enjoying the view?” You jump and your eyes snap back up to see Sollux smirking, his eyes gleaming with a spark of amusement. You can feel your face heat up. “I uh..um…” You stutter as you search for any words to justify the way you were staring at him. He just chuckles at you. “It’s okay kk, nobody can resist looking at my body.”

 

He turns around and searches through his dresser, pulling out his clothes. Before you realize what’s going on he’s already dropped the towel and put his boxers on. You blush madly and your eyes widen. He grabs a pair of jeans and slips them on then goes over to his closet. He pulls out a black and white striped short sleeve shirt and throws it towards you along with a pair of black jeans.

 

“You can wear those today to school” You smile a bit at his lisp and stand up. “Thanks” He looks back and smiles at you. “No problem, I bet you look adorable in my clothes.” You blush and look down as he slips a black shirt over his head. While he’s still turned away from you you quickly change into his clothes. His shirt was too big so it kind of hung off your body but the jeans fit okay, despite them being a bit too long.

 

He turns around and smiles again. “I was right. Adorable as fuck” You grumble a quiet ‘shut up’ but the blush on your cheeks is unmistakable. He walks over to you wraps his arms around you and you wrap your own arms around his neck, hugging him close. You lean your head against his chest and close your eyes.

 

Soon you guys break apart and he kisses you quickly. You shiver once he lets you go, you’re not used to wearing such thin clothing. He must have realized this because he walks back to his closet and pulls out a sweatshirt. It was yellow and has bees stitched in on the sleeves. He throws it to and you catch it. As you go to put it on you notice it has a gemini sign on the back as well.

 

Once you’re both ready you walk down stairs with him and find his mother sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. She looks up as you and Sollux walk in. “Hello Karkat, how are you?” You smile at her “I’m good, how are you?” She smiles back at you “Oh i’m doing just fine”

 

You can’t help but smile when you talk to Sollux's mom, she’s so nice to you, like a mother should be. So unlike your own. Sollux walks out of the room to grab his backpack and his mom look you over. “Are you wearing Sollux's clothes?” You blush, looking down at yourself “Oh uh, yeah..” She chuckles “That’s cute, Though i’m surprised he’s letting you wear that sweatshirt” You tilt your head in confusion. “How come?” “Well it’s his favorite, he’s had it for years. He never lets anybody touch it” You look down at the worn out piece of clothing and smile slightly.

 

Sollux comes back in, his backpack swung over one shoulder and grabs your hand. “Bye mom” He leans down and kisses her cheek and she waves as you two walk out of the house. Once you guys are both in Sollux's car and on your way to school you turn to him. “I like your mom, she’s nice” He smiles and glances at you quickly. “Yeah, she’s pretty cool. she likes you too” You smile “Really?” He nods, eyes looking forward. “Yeah, she thinks you’re a nice boy” He chuckles as he says that and you roll your eyes.

 

For the rest of the ride he’s quite, like he’s thinking about something. Before you have time to really ponder the thought, he pulls into the school parking lot. Once you both get out you walk a bit ahead of him, eager to get to class and away from the crowded hallways. He walks with you to your locker and leans against the one next to yours, staring off into space. You look at him out of the corner of your eye as you place your stuff inside. 

“Sollux?” He doesn’t answer you, he just continues to stare across the hallway. You grab the door of your locker and slam it shut, making him and jump. He turns his head towards you, his eyebrow raised behind his glasses. You turn towards him completely and lean against your locker. “You okay?”

 

“Yeah, i’m fine” The way he talks seems distant to you and you start thinking of the worst. What if he regrets what happened. What if he doesn’t want to be with you. What if- Your worrying must have registered on your face because Sollux places his hands on either side of your face. “Karkat, I’m fine, I promise.” He kisses your nose and smiles and you take a deep breath and manage a small smile back.

 

You walk with him to his locker then you both walk to English. Once class starts you tune the teacher out and stare out the window. You feel embarrassed about how you reacted at your locker. Why does your mind always go to the worst possible scenario? Why do you have to think like that, gah! You’re so stupid!You sigh quietly and turn your head to look at Sollux. He’s looking forward, listening to the teacher talk about acrostic poems or something like that. You use the opportunity to look him over for the second time today. At least this time he’s wearing clothes.

 

His hair is no longer wet and is sticking up in it’s usual style. You didn’t see him style it this morning so you have no idea how it stays like that. His glasses are perched on the bridge of his nose, his eyes following the movements of Ms. Hallow. His shirt hugs his body, like most of his shirts. His jeans do the same, hugging his legs in a way that you couldn’t help but think should be uncomfortable but attractive none the less.

 

You bring the sleeves of sollux sweatshirt up to your face and smile slightly. You think back to a couple nights ago when you first saw Sollux’s eyes. You can’t help but wish you could see them all the time. They were so pretty, you don’t understand why he hides them behind red and blue lenses. You also don’t understand why you feel the way you do. You used to think you were okay with being lonely. That being alone was the only time you were safe. The only time you never got hurt. But now, if sollux left and you were to be alone again...it wouldn’t be the same.

 

You’re sure you’d get used to it. You’d fall back into your normal routine of not talking to anybody and sulking alone in the shadows. In the week the last week you’ve gained a friend and a boyfriend all in one. Wow...you never realized how overwhelming this is… What’s going on with you? You’re usually so closed and unwilling to interact with any other human being but with Sollux, you’re pretty sure you opened up like a fucking book.

 

What are you trying to do, set yourself up to be beaten down again? You look down at yourself. You’re wearing his clothes. You’re thinking about him. You kissed him. But why? Why?? What is so special about Sollux Captor? Sure you think he’s a bit attractive...okay, that’s a lie, he’s extremely attractive. But you know almost nothing about him aside from what you’ve learned hanging out with him. But what you do know, you love. But...why? What is so special about Sollux Captor?

 

=> Be Sollux...Again

 

You stare ahead to the teacher. You knew you should really be paying attention but you just can’t. So you stare ahead, hoping she’ll think you’re listening. But really, your mind is on that dream. You think maybe you’re delirious. It obviously wasn’t Karkat's voice, it couldn’t have been. And even if it was there are reasonable explanations to why. You decide you’re going to forget about it. It’s no use worrying if you can’t get an answer.

 

Soon the bell rings and you stand up, grabbing your notebook and turning towards Karkat. He stands up and grabs his stuff before turning to you. He looks exhausted. The dark circles under his eyes shows he doesn’t sleep well at all. He grabs your hand and you both walk out to the hallway and towards your next class. People look at you two weirdly, it’s not everyday two guys walk down the hallway holding hands but you just ignore them. Their opinion of you doesn’t matter.

 

-

 

The rest of school goes by quickly, nothing interesting really happening over the course of the day. The bell rings and you lead Karkat to your car. You both get in and you drive away towards his house. “You’re car is really fucking dirty Sollux” You just shrug. “Yeah i know” You can see him shake his head out of the corner of your eye. “You don’t even care?” “Naw not really” He chuckles a bit “So your room is spotless but your car is a fucking wreck?”You chuckle also “Well yeah, my room has my computer and shit of course it’s clean”

“You’re a nerd”

“Yeah i know”

 

You both go silent as you pull into Karkats driveway. You can’t help but notice that there is two cars, that means his dad’s home. That makes you really nervous but you don’t show it. Karkat sigh and unbuckles his seat belt. He opens the car door and goes to get out but he stops and turns back towards you. He leans over the seat and kisses you quickly and you smile. He smiles back and grabs his backpack before getting out of the car. You watch him walk into the house and you notice the curtin in the window moving a bit but you pay no attention before driving away.

=> Be Karkat

 

You turn back and watch as Sollux drives away, smiling slightly, a sense of security in your mind. Though as you open the door to your house and walk inside that sense of safety diminishes. Your father stands next to the window, his arms crossed, looking at you with disgust in his eyes. He always looked at you like that but now it felt more menacing. You drop your backpack and close the door, watching him. He narrows his eyes and takes a step towards you to which you step back, now pressed against the door. Your heart beats faster in your chest as he continues to walk closer. “So, you weren't enough of a fuck up before, you had to go and be a fag too”

  
You’re really confused for a second but then it hits you. He saw you kiss Sollux when you got out of his car. You don’t have time to ponder the fact because before you realize it, your dad’s fists are already connecting with your stomach, your face, any place he can reach. And you crumple to the ground.


	10. Injuries

=> Be Sollux

After you dropped Karkat off you quickly drive home and climb the stairs to your room. Once in there you're careful not to trip over any of the wires before flopping down onto your bed. You sigh and grab your phone, deciding to text Karkat. You have this feeling that somethings wrong but you don't know why.

_**'Hey kk, ii ju2t want two make 2ure you're okay'** _

Ten minute go by without an answer. Twenty. Thirty. An hour. You do your best to distract yourself with your laptop as you wait. It's not really working however, you still check your phone every five minutes. Finally after almost two hours you get a response.

_**'can you come pick me up? please?'** _

_**'yeah of cour2e, ii2 2omethiing wrong?'** _

_**'just come. now please'** _

You know something is wrong, he's not typing in caps and he's being a lot more calm than normal. He also said please, which for Karkat, is really out of character. You put your laptop aside and grab your keys, heading out to your car. You yell a quick 'i'll be back' to your mother before getting into your car. You drive off and it only takes a few minutes for you to end back in Karkats driveway.

You realize that one car is gone as you walk up to the front door and knock. After a few minute nobody answers to you open the door and peer inside. "Kk?" You get no answer so you walk inside and close the door behind you. You see a few redish brown stains by your feet and you wonder for a split second what it is but you disregard it and continue to look for your boyfriend. You walk into the kitchen then down the hallway, seeing small stains similar to the ones by the door as you walk.

"Karkat?" You're starting to get really worried. Why isn't he answering you? Finally you walk into his room. You were never prepared to see what you're seeing now. Karkat, sprawled on the floor next to his bed, the same stains on the carpet around him and you finally realize. It's blood. His chest's moving slowly but his eyes are closed, his phone laying next to him on the floor. "Oh my god…"

Quickly you kneel next to him, shaking his shoulder. "Karkat?" Slowly he opens his eyes and looks up at you. You breath a sigh in relief that he was still conscious. "kk, what happened?" He blinks a few times before answering. "My dad.." His voice is quiet and weak and you know you have to get him to the hospital. You don't have time to worry about his father yet so you just carefully slip your arms under him, one under his knees and the other under his back and steadily stand up. He's limp in your arms and you struggle to carry him out to your car. He's not that heavy but he's sprawled out and you're having a hard time keeping a hold of him. You retrace your steps to your car.

…

Over the next couple of hours you get Karkat to the hospital and the doctors quickly take him from you, the police bombard you with questions while you do your best to answer them all, and his mother comes, panicked and half drunk. They still won't let you see Karkat but at least you know the extent of his injuries. He has a lot of bruises and scratches over his body and a large cut going across his stomach. They say it's nothing too serious but they had to stitch his stomach and he's going to have a scar.

They had given him some kind of medication so he would sleep because he wouldn't let the doctors get near him. As of now he's still in the hospital room and you haven't heard from the doctors in an hour. You sit in the waiting room, Karkats mother sitting beside you. They say nothing serious happened but you're still extremely worried about him.

You haven't spoken to his mother but she has sobered up enough to realize you were here for the same reason she was. A doctor walks into the waiting room and you perk up hopefully. He looks down at a clipboard quickly. "Sollux Captor?" You stand up as he looks back up from his papers. "Karkat Vantas is asking for you. We don't normally allow visitors right now but he's refusing to let us do anything without you there."

You nod and silently follow the doctor, Karkats mother staring after you, a worried look on her face, probably wondering why she wasn't being called to see her son. The doctor leads you down a white hallway, everything is this place seems to be a sterile white. It creeps you out and makes you wonder how anybody could works here. Having to see the same empty walls everyday and having to see people die on your watch regularly. It just seems like a lot of tragedy for one person to handle. But, you suppose some can handle it.

You soon reach a room with a numbered plate reading 413. "You can go in, try to talk some sense into him okay? We know he needs stitches but we also have to check for broken bones but he wont let us near him. I'll be back in twenty minutes." With that the man walks off down back the way you had just came. You take a deep breath before walking into the room. The first thing you see upon stepping inside is a pale figure huddled in about three of those really thin, white, knitted blankets.

Karkat looked even paler than usual, his skin contrasting with his dark hair and the purple bruises on his face. You're sure he has more over his body but he's cover from his neck down in blankets. Along with the bruises he had a number of cuts and scrapes across his cheeks and near his eyes. All together he looked terrible. Like he had been hit by a fucking truck. You sigh and step further into the room as Karkats eyes land on you. He watches you silently as you walk over next to the bed and sit down.

You stay silent for a moment before speaking "Kk...tell me what happened" He doesn't respond and you have a feeling he's not going to so you move on. You already know it was his dad anyways. "Karkat you have to let the doctors do their job. They're only trying to help alright? You need to let them help" You can hear him sigh quietly and he shifts under the blankets, a pale hand coming out from underneath them. You take his hand and squeeze it gently before pressing the button to call the nurses.

You stay with Karkat while the doctor checks him over. He would flinch everytime he was touched but he stayed quiet and let him work. You find that he has two broken ribs a one cracked one, he has a mild concussion, and he needs stitches for a long cut on his arm. The doctor quickly stitches Karkats arm and wraps his torso in a bandage for his rips.

When he's done he walks out of the room, coming back a minute later. "Alright Mr. Vantas, you should be fine for now however I suggest you take it easy for a while. No vigorous physical activity. It may be a bit hard to walk with your rips but they should heal quickly. Be careful with your head also, wouldn't want you getting a more serious concussion. You may leave whenever."

Karkat nods a bit and his mother slowly comes inside. You look at her from your spot still sitting next to the bed and you can see her eyes fill with tears as her eyes land on her son. She manages not to cry as the doctor turns to talk to her. You feel a small tug on your sleeve and you turn to Karkat who's now sitting up. /"I wanna leave…"/ He says quietly, looking down. You nod and stand up, helping Karkat to his feet. He winces and seems to wobble a bit so you wrap an arm around his waist to make sure he won't fall.

Karkats mother stays behind to talk to the doctor and you see a few police officers go into the room after you help Karkat out. You two walks slowly out to your car and you help him in. Once inside you quickly pull out of the parking lot and start driving back towards his house. As you star ahead you feel him weakly grip your wrist. You glance over at him questionally before he speaks quietly. "I don't want to go home" You glance at him again then nod "Yeah alright. My house?" You look over to see him nod so you turn around and drive towards your own house.

You help Karkat out when you get there and you two walk inside. You can hear your mom humming in the kitchen, the smell of her cooking wafting through the house. "Sollux honey is that you?" "Yeah mom, Karkats with me" You hear her put a few things down and she comes out of the kitchen wearing an apron. Her smile falls as she gets sight of the small boy you're basically holding up right. "Oh my what happened?" She asks worriedly. "We'll talk later, i'm gonna get him into bed alright?" She nods then walks back into the kitchen but not without a worried glance at Karkat.

You can't really help him up the steps without you both falling flat on your face so you carefully pick him up. It's easier to carry him this time cause he's not sprawled out, he stays tucked against your chest, his arms around your neck. You carry him upstairs and into your room. He's practically falling asleep in your arms so you lay him on your bed, pulling the covers over him.

You kiss his head before turning to leave, planning on helping your mom with dinner. However your hand is grabbed and you look back at Karkat. You raises an eyebrow as he opens his eyes. /"Lay with me.."/ He sounds exhausted so you don't argue with him. You lay down next to him and he does his best to cuddle up to you. You're not really tired at all but you stay laying there as Karkat sleeps, his head resting on your chest.

You find yourself wondering where his dad ran off to and you pray to god he doesn't decide to come back. For Karkats sake. Slowly you end up falling asleep. The last thing you remember is your mother coming in and snapping a picture before it all goes blank.


	11. Old memories and Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update! >.

=> Karkat

 

Throughout you sleep you toss and turn, the memories of yesterday plaguing your dreams and making it impossible to get a decent nights rest. You remember it all so clearly. Your dad had been angry when he saw you kissing Sollux, you never knew he was homophobic but you guess you should have seen it coming. He would find any excuse he could just to hit you. Sometimes he didn't even have one.

 

You shift and open your eyes, looking into a black room. It must still be night. You sigh quietly before freezing. You can hear another person breathing. Why would someone else be in your room? You lay quietly until your eyes adjust to the dark before looking over, expecting to see some crazed lunatic staring back at you. But no, it's just Sollux, sleeping peacefully next to you.

 

Now that you look around...this isn't even your room. It's your boyfriends. You don't remember falling asleep here but whatever. You turn onto your side and curl up against Sollux, the warmth of his body was so inviting. His body pressed against yours takes your mind off your father for a while, and your grateful. But as you shift again you wince, feeling all the places he hit you.

 

It was normal though, you were used to it. It doesn't bother you as much as it used to. You can feel the stitches in your side. Your father had been swinging around a broken bottle, not necessarily towards you but eventually it came into contact with your side. Once you had fallen to your knees your dad seemed to comprehend what he did and quickly left, not bothering to see if you were okay or to call an ambulance. You're just glad Sollux got to you.

 

But none of that is what really bothers you. You can't bring yourself to care about that. All you can think of is the reason why he did it. Because of Sollux. You'd take another thousand beatings from your dad before you'd ever tell Sollux that. You don't know how he'd react but you do know he'd blame himself. It's not his fault and you know it but he would think it was. You don't ever want to see that kind of look on his face, one of guilt and sorrow.

 

You bury your face against Solluxs chest, trying to block those images out. He makes a quiet noise and shifts a bit as you look up at his face. He opens his eyes and lets them adjust to the darkness before looking down at you. His expression was calm at first but quickly turned to one of worry.

 

“Karkat? Are you okay?”

 

You nod up at him, despite your head pounding like a ton of bricks were rattling around inside your skull and your whole body dully aching, you were fine. You feel his hands on you, one on your lower back and the other softly running through your hair.

 

. “Why are you awake? It's-” He pauses and looks over at his alarm clock before continuing “-three in the morning.” You shrug

 

“I couldn't sleep.” Sollux nods and he continues to play with your hair. Over the course of these few weeks it was obvious he had picked up on a few of your not usually well known traits. One being that your hair being played with calms you down and helps you relax. The gentle touches always helped, your mother used to do it before she found alcohol. After your dad would get done with you she'd let you curl up in her lap and she'd play with your hair until you stopped shaking and eventually feel asleep.

 

You would say that those were the good old days but they weren't. The good ones were when your dad was nice. When he would let you sit in his lap in the evening when he watched football, when he would sit you on the kitchen counter and let you help make dinner as best you could, when he would wake you up in the morning by offering you pancakes and hot chocolate, when he would tickle you just so he could see you smile.

 

You find yourself with you face hidden against Solluxs shirt as tears roll down your cheeks. You're glad he doesn't ask what's wrong, he just pulls the blankets up higher and wraps his arms around you tightly. Despite how safe you feel wrapped in his arms you still end up sobbing against his chest, trying to be as quiet as you can.

 

You wish you could go back. You want your daddy back, the one that chased away nightmares and scary monsters in your closet You want your family back.

 

You force yourself to stop thinking about that and soon you calm down, breathing in and out deeply. You close your eyes and Sollux traces shapes against your back. The gentle touch making you stop shaking and eventually fall asleep.

 

 

Surprisingly you sleep well into the morning. Even more surprisingly, Sollux stays with you the whole time. Not really like he had a choice though, you clung to him like you were afraid he would disintegrate and leave you alone. You hate to admit it but you have a bit of separation issues. But lets face it, when you go through life with not a single soul to talk to and then suddenly there's someone there to care about you, you're gonna keep a tight hold on them.

 

However, he didn't seem to mind anyways, he just layed there with you, playing with your hair until you eventually wake up. You yawn and open your eyes, just laying there, enjoying the warmth for a moment before looking up at him. He was looking up at the ceiling but when he feels you move he looks down at you.

\ “...How long have you been awake?” He shrugs a bit and you realize he now had his glasses on.

“A few hours I think. How'd you sleep?”

“Okay I guess.” You snuggle back against him. Your head is pounding and all you really want to do is go back to sleep but you know you wont be able to. So you just lay there, Sollux gently petting your hair and eventually you do fall asleep again and Sollux is there the whole time. For once you actually feel safe.

 

The next days go by with you laying in Solluxs bed. That's really it. You wanted to get up but Solluxs mother insisted that you stay in bed. She also insisted on playing nurse, bringing you whatever you needed, whenever you needed it.

 

You felt kind of bad though, she took a week off from work so that she could care for you. Sollux couldn't stay with you though, he had to go to school. HE tried to convince his mother to let him take the week off too but she wasn't having that. He was gone before you left in the morning but he always left sweet notes on the bed side table. The one you liked the most was scribbled in his messy hand righting.

 

'Morning kk,

I hope you have a good day. School's pretty lonely without you there with me. But I'll see you when I get home. Text me if you need me. I love you.

        * Sollux'




 

That was the note he had left today. All his notes were basically telling you that he hopes you feel better or something like that. To anybody else they would seem plane and boring but they never failed to put a smile on your face. Plus, you could look at them during the day when he wasn't here.

 

The reason you liked this one the most was because he said 'I love you'. He never said that before, that was the first time. It (as cliché as it is) made your heart skip a beat. After reading it you had grabbed your phone and sent him a text.

 

**'I LOVE YOU TOO'**

 

His mom had noticed you over happy mood the rest of the day and she figured out why when she read the note that was still sitting on the table. She just 'aww'ed with made you flush with embarrassment.

 

For the whole day you just lay in bed, engrossing yourself in one of the romance novels Solluxs mom let you borrow. It was a good distraction, it made the time fly by. You don't even notice when at 3:40 the bedroom door opens and Sollux walks in, dropping his back pack on the floor.

 

You only notice him when his face pops up over the top of your book. You look up at him and smile before putting your book down.

 

“Are you reading a romance book?” He questions as he sits next to you on the bed, grabbing the book from you to inspect the cover.

“It's possible..” You shrug as he turns it over to read the summary on the back.

“Wow this is really sappy and cheesy. Why do you read these?” He gives you the book back and raises an eyebrow. You just shrug again.

“I like romantic things.” Your cheeks turn a bit red as he smiles. He wraps an arm around you and you lean your head against his chest.

“Well, I promise when you're better I'll take you out and we can do something romantic. Like a picnic on the beach or some shit.” You look up to him and smile.

“Okay.” He smiles back and leans down to peck your lips, this is the happiest you've been in a long time despite your head ach. After a moment he speaks again.

“Love you kk.” You smile wider and nuzzles him.

“Love you Sollux.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -So I think theres only going to be one or two more chapter to this :0 Almost Over! I may or may not do a second story on these two, I havent decided....Anyways!! I really want to start a collection of one shots but I have no idea what to write about so if you want me to write about a pairing you like or something you can send me an ask on tumblr! My url is princeofclowns. And thank you for the lovely reviews! <3


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